Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, any of the other characters, or
anything else written by J. K. Rowling.
Chapter 3
The Best Birthday Ever
After spending their first two days planning for it, Harry's birthday finally came. Even though the invitation had almost always been open, Harry had never been able to make it to the Burrow by his birthday. In fact, Harry had never had a proper birthday celebration in all the fifteen birthdays he had celebrated before. However, the day was nothing like Harry had been expecting. Mrs. Weasley woke everyone up except Harry bright and early, which might not have been the best idea, since Fred and George were usually very cranky if you disrupted their sleep. Nonetheless, everyone in the Weasley household came down to see the house magically redecorated for a suitable birthday celebration. There were candles floating around all the rooms, balloons hovering around the ceiling, a huge sign that said in Gryffindor red and gold, "Happy 16th Harry," a stack of presents sat on the floor in the living room and the biggest birthday cake ever sat squarely in the middle of a breakfast feast. Everyone scrambled to make last minute touches, while Mrs. Weasley put a stop to whatever trick Fred and George were planning above the doorway that Harry would come in through.
Somehow, Harry had managed to sleep through the crashing and near shouting as if nothing was going on. Just as everything was in place, there was a loud popping sound from the fireplace. Seamus Finnigan, Neville Longbottom, Dean Thomas, Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil had all crashed into the living room. Now that the rest of the Gryffindor 6th years had arrived, the Weasley's small living room seemed smaller than ever. Fortunately, nobody seemed to care, as they were all very excited to see Harry's reaction. If they had wanted a reaction, they certainly got one. Finally Harry came down the stairs, whistling, dressed and ready for the day. The room got silent at the sound of Harry's whistling and Harry walked into the room.
At first he was stunned. Then his mouth dropped open s he took in the scene around him; however, he quickly had to close it as he got a mouthful of the steady stream of confetti that rained from the doorway where he was standing. Harry grinned widely as all fourteen people in the room chimed simultaneously, "Happy Birthday Harry!" Harry saw the flash of a camera as he walked into the room. Mr. Weasley was trying desperately to pose everyone in the center of the room for a group picture, but everyone was too busy trying to talk to Harry at once. Finally, using a voice-enhancing charm, Mr. Weasley shouted above the noise, "HEY! Let's take this picture and then everyone can talk to Harry over our breakfast, which is now starting to get cold." That got everyone moving. Mr. Weasley set the camera on a timer and ran to the back of the group. As soon as it flashed, Fred broke away from the group calling, "Let's eat," behind him.
Breakfast was a whirl of excitement as Harry caught up with what all of his friends had been doing that summer and passed plate after plate of some of the best food he'd tasted all summer. Dean and Seamus asked Harry about when Quidditch try-outs would be and Neville turned pale at the thought of flying, catching and throwing all at the same time.
"Well, they have to be as soon as we get back really. Half the team will be new and I really want to get some good practice time in before the first big game. I mean, we're playing Ravenclaw first, and they're going to have a killer team this year," Harry chatted happily.
After breakfast, they all reconvened in the living room to open Harry's gifts. Harry looked at the pile with apprehension, he had never seen so many presents that were for him at once. He started with Fred and George's gift since it was the biggest. As Harry opened the box, a puzzled look came across his face.
"What's in it?" Hermione asked plainly.
Harry pulled out another wrapped box and looked to Fred and George. The twins eyes were shinning and they grinned evilly.
"Open it Harry," George said suppressing a laugh.
Harry opened the box to reveal a smaller wrapped box, which contained another one and so on. Finally, thirteen boxes later, inside a tiny box, Harry found a small Gringotts key.
"Hey thanks guys!"
Ron answered quickly, "I wouldn't be so quick to thank them. You haven't even seen what it is yet."
The twins howled as Mrs. Weasley went about making all the boxes and wrapping disappear. Bill, who had apparently added to whatever was in the Gringotts vault, laughed right along with them and said to his mother, "So much for taking away their magic privileges to wrap Harry's gift. These two don't even need magic to cause trouble." At this, the twins laughed even harder and the rest of the room soon joined them.
All in all, Harry got a book that looks up spells for you from Hermione ("Is this more for me or for you?" "It's for you Harry, why would I want to cut down my library time?"), and a book called Great Professions for Great Wizards from Percy. Ron, Seamus and Dean had all pitched in to get Harry the latest Firebolt, the fastest broom in Great Britain. Neville and his grandmother gave him a potions kit with rare ingredients. Lavender and Parvati gave Harry a set of tarot cards, so that he would stop borrowing theirs for his Divinations homework. Hagrid had sent Harry a book filled with pictures of different kinds of dragons and all kinds of information on them. Harry smiled at this, remembering Norbert, the dragon Hagrid had tried to keep in their first year. Finally, Harry opened his gift from Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. It was a photo album, filled with pictures from the last five years. Harry looked at it in wonderment. There weren't any pictures of him that he knew of other than the one he had of himself and his parents when he was a baby and the ones that were taken for the Daily Prophet on occasion. Yet, this album was full of pictures from everyday things in his life the past years: Harry and Ron on their first day at Hogwarts, Harry, Ron and Hermione at several occasions, several pictures of the Triwizard Tournament from fourth year, Harry and the Quidditch team, the Quidditch World Cup, and dozens of others. It seemed like there were so many, he would never be able to look at them all. Harry flipped to the back to see where they ended. He was shocked to see the pictures they had taken that morning! There he was, surrounded by his friends on his sixteenth birthday, smiling like he had never smiled before, underneath a rain of confetti.
"Wow! This is great Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. I really, can't thank you enough. I never expected such a gift."
"Well, Harry, I thought it was about time you had some kind of good memories to look back on and I knew that those muggles never took your picture," replied Mrs. Weasley, a little teary-eyed.
Harry was about to take all of his new gifts up to Ron's room to pack away in his school trunk when he noticed a small box that he hadn't seen before. "That's strange," he thought. "Didn't I get a gift from everyone?" He picked up the box and saw that it was from Ginny. He hadn't really expected to get anything from Ginny, but it didn't seem weird either since everyone else had given him a gift. He looked up at Ginny to find her watching him with serious interest. It was clear that she was worried that he wouldn't like it. Harry slowly unwrapped the small box and opened it to find an ancient looking ring on a chain. The ring was twisted into an intricate pattern and was inscribed on the inside with delicate looking runes. Harry had never taken Ancient Runes, so he couldn't read it, but something drew him into the ring. The chain it was on was just as intricate as the ring himself. Even though he was fascinated by it, Harry couldn't figure out where Ginny would get it and why she would give it to him. Silently, he closed the box it was in and looked up at Ginny, who was apparently satisfied with his reaction. Suddenly he realized that the entire room had gotten very quiet. Harry looked around to see everyone watching him, their eyes glancing from Harry, to the box, to Ginny. They had all seen the ring and were pondering the same things that Harry was himself.
Ginny herself broke the silence by going to let Hedwig and Errol in as they were both tapping on the window. The two owls flew in carrying a large package labeled "All the Hogwarts Students Present at the Burrow." Mrs. Weasley opened the package and distributed the annual Hogwarts letters to the 6th year Gryffindors and Ginny. Lavender gasped at she looked at the list of required reading for the year.
"They, can't really expect us to . . . to read all of this, can they?" she stammered, still unbelieving.
Harry and Ron looked just as dismayed at the list:
Standard Book of Spells, Grade 6
Charms for Advanced Students
Ancient Potions
Dictionary of Potion Ingredients and Their Uses
Self-Tranfiguration
Advanced Transfigurations
Animating Inanimate Objects
Dictionary of Herbology
Magical Plants
History of Britain's Ministry of Magic
Hogwarts Founders
Real World Defenses
Vampires, Demons, and What They Can Do To You
Elusive Creatures
Dreams and Visions
Hermione's eyes were glowing as she read through the list. "I've always wanted to read that!" she exclaimed at something. The rest of the students grumbled. Ron added, "We haven't had this many books since Lockhart. No, I don't think we even had this many then!" Everyone else agreed and glared at Hermione who was still in rapture over the course book list. Harry glanced over the other things that would be needed that year, nothing new really, when he noticed that he had an extra paper in his letter.
Harry,
I hope you have had a good summer. There are some very important things I need to discuss with you at the start of the term. When you arrive at Hogwarts, please report directly to my office. I, of course, will have to attend the sorting ceremony, but I think there are things that require your immediate attention. I will leave a letter with everything you need to know in my office. Best wishes Harry.
Dumbledore
Harry read the letter from Dumbledore and then quickly put it away. He would wait until they were on the way to school to share it with Ron and Hermione, that way, they could discuss it in private. Fortunately, nobody had noticed Harry's letter and were busy planning a Quidditch match before everyone had to go home. After recruiting Fred, George, Ginny, and Bill, they actually had enough people to play with two full teams. Seamus and Dean both wanted to practice on their Beater skills, so they teamed up against Fred and George. Harry played Seeker for the twins team, and Ginny took the position with the other Gryffindor boys. Ron and Hermione took the positions of Chasers with Seamus, Dean and Ginny, and Neville and Lavender played for the twins and Harry. Parvati played Keeper with Harry's team and Bill joined the other side. After one quick game, (the snitch was practically following Harry), they played a very long game. Ginny turned out to be a very good seeker, even though Fred and George complained that they couldn't send any bludgers her way, it just wouldn't be right. Harry thought to himself that Ginny would make an excellent seeker indeed and resolved to ask if she wanted to join the reserve team this year. Finally, Mr. Weasley called out that it was time for everyone to head home for supper. After a couple groans and a few "Just one more game!" everyone came inside and gave their last birthday wishes to Harry and stepped back through the fireplace.
That night up in Ron's room, Harry reflected on the best birthday he had ever had. He took out Ginny's ring and puzzled at it for a few minutes. He resolved that if he had the chance he would ask her what it meant. After all, it wasn't likely that a ring with ancient runes on it was just a cheap pieace of jewelry, especially not in the wizarding world. Setting it aside, Harry felt that something was missing. He had had the best birthday of his life, but something still seemed ominous about it. Harry looked over to Hadwig who seemed kind of anxious in her cage. Suddenly, Harry realized what was missing! Sirius, his godfather, hadn't sent him anything. That was very unusual, Sirius never missed sending Harry something for his birthday. It wasn't that Harry was upset that his godfather had not sent him a gift, it was just, he hadn't even gotten an owl saying wishing him a happy birthday. Suddenly, the ominous feeling turned into worry. What if Sirius was in trouble? Dumbledore's letter had certainly suggested that something was wrong that Harry needed to know about. Quickly, Harry sat down and wrote a letter to Sirius, just to make sure that he was ok. Hedwig looked at Harry expectantly as he tied the letter to her leg. He let her out the window and watched his loyal owl fly away into the night.
Harry settled down and began to think. His scar had not been hurting him at all that summer. After last year, that was quite a relief. At the same time, the long period of quiet was a bit unsettling. Harry resolved to think more about what it could all mean later, since he wasn't likely to figure it all out in one night anyway. Just before drifting off to sleep, he smiled as he thought about what a great life he now had even if it was difficult to be the famous Harry Potter.
A/N: So, there's the basic layout for the plot, but don't worry, there are quite a few mysteries left to solve. What does the ring Ginny gave him mean? What does the inscription say? And what about the note from Dumbledore? Does it have anything to do with Sirius? Well, I guess you'll just have to keep reading to find out. Thanks to my first reviewer! Never fear, there will be plenty of action. To the rest of you, please please please review!
Chapter 3
The Best Birthday Ever
After spending their first two days planning for it, Harry's birthday finally came. Even though the invitation had almost always been open, Harry had never been able to make it to the Burrow by his birthday. In fact, Harry had never had a proper birthday celebration in all the fifteen birthdays he had celebrated before. However, the day was nothing like Harry had been expecting. Mrs. Weasley woke everyone up except Harry bright and early, which might not have been the best idea, since Fred and George were usually very cranky if you disrupted their sleep. Nonetheless, everyone in the Weasley household came down to see the house magically redecorated for a suitable birthday celebration. There were candles floating around all the rooms, balloons hovering around the ceiling, a huge sign that said in Gryffindor red and gold, "Happy 16th Harry," a stack of presents sat on the floor in the living room and the biggest birthday cake ever sat squarely in the middle of a breakfast feast. Everyone scrambled to make last minute touches, while Mrs. Weasley put a stop to whatever trick Fred and George were planning above the doorway that Harry would come in through.
Somehow, Harry had managed to sleep through the crashing and near shouting as if nothing was going on. Just as everything was in place, there was a loud popping sound from the fireplace. Seamus Finnigan, Neville Longbottom, Dean Thomas, Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil had all crashed into the living room. Now that the rest of the Gryffindor 6th years had arrived, the Weasley's small living room seemed smaller than ever. Fortunately, nobody seemed to care, as they were all very excited to see Harry's reaction. If they had wanted a reaction, they certainly got one. Finally Harry came down the stairs, whistling, dressed and ready for the day. The room got silent at the sound of Harry's whistling and Harry walked into the room.
At first he was stunned. Then his mouth dropped open s he took in the scene around him; however, he quickly had to close it as he got a mouthful of the steady stream of confetti that rained from the doorway where he was standing. Harry grinned widely as all fourteen people in the room chimed simultaneously, "Happy Birthday Harry!" Harry saw the flash of a camera as he walked into the room. Mr. Weasley was trying desperately to pose everyone in the center of the room for a group picture, but everyone was too busy trying to talk to Harry at once. Finally, using a voice-enhancing charm, Mr. Weasley shouted above the noise, "HEY! Let's take this picture and then everyone can talk to Harry over our breakfast, which is now starting to get cold." That got everyone moving. Mr. Weasley set the camera on a timer and ran to the back of the group. As soon as it flashed, Fred broke away from the group calling, "Let's eat," behind him.
Breakfast was a whirl of excitement as Harry caught up with what all of his friends had been doing that summer and passed plate after plate of some of the best food he'd tasted all summer. Dean and Seamus asked Harry about when Quidditch try-outs would be and Neville turned pale at the thought of flying, catching and throwing all at the same time.
"Well, they have to be as soon as we get back really. Half the team will be new and I really want to get some good practice time in before the first big game. I mean, we're playing Ravenclaw first, and they're going to have a killer team this year," Harry chatted happily.
After breakfast, they all reconvened in the living room to open Harry's gifts. Harry looked at the pile with apprehension, he had never seen so many presents that were for him at once. He started with Fred and George's gift since it was the biggest. As Harry opened the box, a puzzled look came across his face.
"What's in it?" Hermione asked plainly.
Harry pulled out another wrapped box and looked to Fred and George. The twins eyes were shinning and they grinned evilly.
"Open it Harry," George said suppressing a laugh.
Harry opened the box to reveal a smaller wrapped box, which contained another one and so on. Finally, thirteen boxes later, inside a tiny box, Harry found a small Gringotts key.
"Hey thanks guys!"
Ron answered quickly, "I wouldn't be so quick to thank them. You haven't even seen what it is yet."
The twins howled as Mrs. Weasley went about making all the boxes and wrapping disappear. Bill, who had apparently added to whatever was in the Gringotts vault, laughed right along with them and said to his mother, "So much for taking away their magic privileges to wrap Harry's gift. These two don't even need magic to cause trouble." At this, the twins laughed even harder and the rest of the room soon joined them.
All in all, Harry got a book that looks up spells for you from Hermione ("Is this more for me or for you?" "It's for you Harry, why would I want to cut down my library time?"), and a book called Great Professions for Great Wizards from Percy. Ron, Seamus and Dean had all pitched in to get Harry the latest Firebolt, the fastest broom in Great Britain. Neville and his grandmother gave him a potions kit with rare ingredients. Lavender and Parvati gave Harry a set of tarot cards, so that he would stop borrowing theirs for his Divinations homework. Hagrid had sent Harry a book filled with pictures of different kinds of dragons and all kinds of information on them. Harry smiled at this, remembering Norbert, the dragon Hagrid had tried to keep in their first year. Finally, Harry opened his gift from Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. It was a photo album, filled with pictures from the last five years. Harry looked at it in wonderment. There weren't any pictures of him that he knew of other than the one he had of himself and his parents when he was a baby and the ones that were taken for the Daily Prophet on occasion. Yet, this album was full of pictures from everyday things in his life the past years: Harry and Ron on their first day at Hogwarts, Harry, Ron and Hermione at several occasions, several pictures of the Triwizard Tournament from fourth year, Harry and the Quidditch team, the Quidditch World Cup, and dozens of others. It seemed like there were so many, he would never be able to look at them all. Harry flipped to the back to see where they ended. He was shocked to see the pictures they had taken that morning! There he was, surrounded by his friends on his sixteenth birthday, smiling like he had never smiled before, underneath a rain of confetti.
"Wow! This is great Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. I really, can't thank you enough. I never expected such a gift."
"Well, Harry, I thought it was about time you had some kind of good memories to look back on and I knew that those muggles never took your picture," replied Mrs. Weasley, a little teary-eyed.
Harry was about to take all of his new gifts up to Ron's room to pack away in his school trunk when he noticed a small box that he hadn't seen before. "That's strange," he thought. "Didn't I get a gift from everyone?" He picked up the box and saw that it was from Ginny. He hadn't really expected to get anything from Ginny, but it didn't seem weird either since everyone else had given him a gift. He looked up at Ginny to find her watching him with serious interest. It was clear that she was worried that he wouldn't like it. Harry slowly unwrapped the small box and opened it to find an ancient looking ring on a chain. The ring was twisted into an intricate pattern and was inscribed on the inside with delicate looking runes. Harry had never taken Ancient Runes, so he couldn't read it, but something drew him into the ring. The chain it was on was just as intricate as the ring himself. Even though he was fascinated by it, Harry couldn't figure out where Ginny would get it and why she would give it to him. Silently, he closed the box it was in and looked up at Ginny, who was apparently satisfied with his reaction. Suddenly he realized that the entire room had gotten very quiet. Harry looked around to see everyone watching him, their eyes glancing from Harry, to the box, to Ginny. They had all seen the ring and were pondering the same things that Harry was himself.
Ginny herself broke the silence by going to let Hedwig and Errol in as they were both tapping on the window. The two owls flew in carrying a large package labeled "All the Hogwarts Students Present at the Burrow." Mrs. Weasley opened the package and distributed the annual Hogwarts letters to the 6th year Gryffindors and Ginny. Lavender gasped at she looked at the list of required reading for the year.
"They, can't really expect us to . . . to read all of this, can they?" she stammered, still unbelieving.
Harry and Ron looked just as dismayed at the list:
Standard Book of Spells, Grade 6
Charms for Advanced Students
Ancient Potions
Dictionary of Potion Ingredients and Their Uses
Self-Tranfiguration
Advanced Transfigurations
Animating Inanimate Objects
Dictionary of Herbology
Magical Plants
History of Britain's Ministry of Magic
Hogwarts Founders
Real World Defenses
Vampires, Demons, and What They Can Do To You
Elusive Creatures
Dreams and Visions
Hermione's eyes were glowing as she read through the list. "I've always wanted to read that!" she exclaimed at something. The rest of the students grumbled. Ron added, "We haven't had this many books since Lockhart. No, I don't think we even had this many then!" Everyone else agreed and glared at Hermione who was still in rapture over the course book list. Harry glanced over the other things that would be needed that year, nothing new really, when he noticed that he had an extra paper in his letter.
Harry,
I hope you have had a good summer. There are some very important things I need to discuss with you at the start of the term. When you arrive at Hogwarts, please report directly to my office. I, of course, will have to attend the sorting ceremony, but I think there are things that require your immediate attention. I will leave a letter with everything you need to know in my office. Best wishes Harry.
Dumbledore
Harry read the letter from Dumbledore and then quickly put it away. He would wait until they were on the way to school to share it with Ron and Hermione, that way, they could discuss it in private. Fortunately, nobody had noticed Harry's letter and were busy planning a Quidditch match before everyone had to go home. After recruiting Fred, George, Ginny, and Bill, they actually had enough people to play with two full teams. Seamus and Dean both wanted to practice on their Beater skills, so they teamed up against Fred and George. Harry played Seeker for the twins team, and Ginny took the position with the other Gryffindor boys. Ron and Hermione took the positions of Chasers with Seamus, Dean and Ginny, and Neville and Lavender played for the twins and Harry. Parvati played Keeper with Harry's team and Bill joined the other side. After one quick game, (the snitch was practically following Harry), they played a very long game. Ginny turned out to be a very good seeker, even though Fred and George complained that they couldn't send any bludgers her way, it just wouldn't be right. Harry thought to himself that Ginny would make an excellent seeker indeed and resolved to ask if she wanted to join the reserve team this year. Finally, Mr. Weasley called out that it was time for everyone to head home for supper. After a couple groans and a few "Just one more game!" everyone came inside and gave their last birthday wishes to Harry and stepped back through the fireplace.
That night up in Ron's room, Harry reflected on the best birthday he had ever had. He took out Ginny's ring and puzzled at it for a few minutes. He resolved that if he had the chance he would ask her what it meant. After all, it wasn't likely that a ring with ancient runes on it was just a cheap pieace of jewelry, especially not in the wizarding world. Setting it aside, Harry felt that something was missing. He had had the best birthday of his life, but something still seemed ominous about it. Harry looked over to Hadwig who seemed kind of anxious in her cage. Suddenly, Harry realized what was missing! Sirius, his godfather, hadn't sent him anything. That was very unusual, Sirius never missed sending Harry something for his birthday. It wasn't that Harry was upset that his godfather had not sent him a gift, it was just, he hadn't even gotten an owl saying wishing him a happy birthday. Suddenly, the ominous feeling turned into worry. What if Sirius was in trouble? Dumbledore's letter had certainly suggested that something was wrong that Harry needed to know about. Quickly, Harry sat down and wrote a letter to Sirius, just to make sure that he was ok. Hedwig looked at Harry expectantly as he tied the letter to her leg. He let her out the window and watched his loyal owl fly away into the night.
Harry settled down and began to think. His scar had not been hurting him at all that summer. After last year, that was quite a relief. At the same time, the long period of quiet was a bit unsettling. Harry resolved to think more about what it could all mean later, since he wasn't likely to figure it all out in one night anyway. Just before drifting off to sleep, he smiled as he thought about what a great life he now had even if it was difficult to be the famous Harry Potter.
A/N: So, there's the basic layout for the plot, but don't worry, there are quite a few mysteries left to solve. What does the ring Ginny gave him mean? What does the inscription say? And what about the note from Dumbledore? Does it have anything to do with Sirius? Well, I guess you'll just have to keep reading to find out. Thanks to my first reviewer! Never fear, there will be plenty of action. To the rest of you, please please please review!