July 21st 2001

Hermione struggled to keep a hold of the very overactive little boy in her arms, as well as all of the things she needed to take to the Burrow, as she walked towards the floo in her flat. It was hard to believe that a year had passed already since the day they had all welcomed little Arty into the world. It had flown by so incredibly quickly and it almost felt like Hermione had blinked and missed half of it. He was so big now, so wonderful and inquisitive.

They had nicknamed him Arty after having to answer the 'which one?' question whenever his full name was called out at the Burrow. It made sense to nickname him and it would only make life easier once he was on the move properly. So far he had managed a few wobbly steps and Hermione knew it wouldn't be long until her son was running after the gnomes that plagued the garden of the Weasley household, rather than crawling after them.

As she fell out of the floo in the aforementioned household, she was glad to find George loitering in the vicinity and he was only too happy to take his nephew from her and begin corrupting him as he usually did. Teddy, now aged three was obsessed with her son and his hair changed to match Arty's whenever they were together, as they would be 2hen Andromeda arrived today. Fleur and Bills little girl, Victoire, was already here and when George put her son down next to his cousin, the two now one year olds played happily with the blocks between them. Hermione smiled at her little boy when he turned to look at her and headed into the kitchen, where Molly was busy preparing the cake for Arty's party while Arthur read the Prophet at the table.

"Morning, Molly. Hello, Arthur," she greeted, kissing them both on the cheek and getting a cup of coffee before plonking down in one of the chairs, "how are you both?"

"Oh we're just fine, dear," Molly smiled and Arthur nodded his agreement, "how did you sleep? Has his pattern sorted itself out yet?"

"Getting there," Hermione grinned, "He went to sleep for the last time at 10 last night and woke up at half past 5. Seven and a half hours… it was heavenly."

"You could definitely have it worse," Molly chuckled, adding the last decorations to Arty's Dragon themed cake, "George... or was it Fred? Well never mind which, but one of them woke up at least four times a night until he was 4. Come to think of it, it could have been both of them…"

She trailed off and Hermione grinned against the pang of upset she felt at seeing dragons all over her boys cake. He had obviously inherited something from Charlie, even if it was something as small as his love of dragons, because Arty was utterly obsessed with the giant beasts. More than once she had considered writing to Charlie to tell him this fact, but despite being in near constant touch with his family, he had failed to write to her since she had told him about her pregnancy, so at this point she felt that she owed him nothing.

"You're going to love what I got Arty for his birthday, 'Mione," said a grinning Ron as he entered the room, followed by an equally suspicious looking Harry, "it's a joint present from me and Harry."

"If you two have brought him a broom," she growled playfully, grinning all the while and jabbing a finger towards them, "I may have to prevent you the ability to have children of your own."

The boys looked at each other wide eyed and left the room very quickly, leaving Hermione crying with laughter at the fact that she had more than likely guessed spot on. They were so predictable it was actually painful.

"How did you guess?" Angelina chuckled, walking in from the living room with Arty in her arms, depositing him in his high chair and making Molly have to very quickly move the cake away lest it be all over his face in 0.1 second flat.

"Oh I don't know," Hermione said sarcastically before rolling her eyes, "honestly you'd think they'd know I can see right through them after over a decade of friendship!"

"Ah, but can you see through me, dearest Hermione?" Came Georges jolly voice calling in from the living room and she looked at Angelina, who mimed breathing fire.

"Does it breath fire?" Hermione called back, winking at Angelina who laughed.

"Oh bloody hell!" George muttered as he appeared in the doorway, "how do you do that?"

"It's a gift!" Hermione shrugged and Angelina almost fell off of her chair laughing.

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Soon the house was filled with a menagerie of Weasleys, two Potters, two Grangers, and one each of the surnames Johnson, Abbot and Longbottom. It was a truly enjoyable afternoon filled with laughter, fun and games. As Hermione watched her beautiful boy be showered with gifts and love, she realised that even though he dad was sadly absent from his life, she couldn't possibly have asked for a better family for him to be a part of. They were just getting ready to give him his gifts, and Hermione snorted when she saw the first one, carried by Harry and Ron.

"You two are so painfully obvious," she laughed, watching as Arty haphazardly ripped off the bright blue paper, "You know he can't even walk properly yet, right?"

"Yeah," Harry grinned, "but this one will grow with him until he starts at Hogwarts!"

"He won't be scared of flying like his mum, not on my watch." Ron added and Hermione rolled her eyes.

"I'm not scared of flying, I'm-"

"Scared of falling!" Came the shout from George, Ginny, Harry, Ron and even Neville.

"Oh har de har har," she groaned, "You're all hilarious. Have any of you considered careers in stand up comedy?"

"I tried once," laughed Neville, "I got booed off stage when I froze and was completely silent for over three minutes. I think they thought I was a dreadful mime."

Hermione laughed as she watched Neville crouch down before Arty and helped him to open his present, which turned out to be a stuffed mimbulus mimbletonia toy. She grinned as Arty put it straight into his mouth.

"I hope he doesn't expect to do that with the real thing," Neville shuddered as he stood up and sat back down at the table, "that would end horribly."

"I'm sure that by the time he encounters a real one he won't be teething, so hopefully we should be fine." She grinned.

Arty received further gifts of some new clothes from Fleur and Bill, some stuffed animals that made their real noises from Molly and Arthur and Percy had even sent an ornamental Dragon that would act as an alarm clock when set with a wand. They were just coming to his last gift, from his uncle George and Hermione laughed when he helped Arty to unwrap a mechanical Dragon that flew around the room and breathed cool, non-damaging fire. It was actually quite beautiful in a strange way and Arty clapped his pudgy hands with glee when the Dragon breathed it's fire on then end of the boys nose.

At five o'clock that evening, once she had shrunk down all of the gifts and stowed them away in her bag, Arty was passed around the whole family for his final birthday wishes and hugs. She received one from each of them, too and then plucked Arty from the arms of his grandpa and headed for the floo and home.