I am going to try and write some proper fic now, but have 'Queen' Greatest Hits

1,2 &3 on and good song fics keep coming into my head...no you've lost me,

sorry. Although I will have to stop CD to do songs...yes it's worth it.



Okay that was yesterday (suppresses urge to write Beatles song fic). I have a

good idea 4 a 1 off fic, but I'm going to do this 4 a while.







Disclaimer; Did anyone here really think I owned Harry Potter? You did? How

sweet...you're wrong.







Ch.3 - Party at the Leakey Cauldron

The party mainly consisted of the Weasleys and people who had been in the pub at the time (Harry recognised a few, including Dedalus Diggle), a few of his school friends who had been doing their shopping were also hanging around.

"This way dear, this way" said Mrs. Weasley, ushering him past several long tables. Looking at the contents of the many bowls on them understood why the Weasleys had been sweet shopping. Mrs. Weasley stopped him in front of the biggest trestle table in the room.

"Presents!" she announced cheerfully. Harry was sure is mouth had dropped a mile because in front of him was the largest pile of gifts he'd ever seen. He wondered how much the Weasleys had had to spend.

"Open mine firs'! Open mine firs'!" came an excited voice from the back. Harry couldn't believe how he hadn't spotted Hagrid before, then he realised Hagrid was sitting down (how long would that chair last?) while everyone else was standing. Hagrid shifted uncomfortably, aware everyone was watching him,

"I mean...'appy birthday 'Arry" Harry laughed, Hagrid was just a (very) big kid at heart. He recognised Hagrid's scrawly writing at once. Tearing open the package he found a large quantity of sweets,

"'Ome made, they are." said Hagrid proudly. Harry quickly dropped the sweet he was holding back into the tub. He put the tin with some of the other food,

"Help yourselves!" he told the assembly, "Although I wouldn't" he added in an undertone, grabbing Ginny Weasley, who had been headed for the tin. She laughed rather guiltily.

Harry sat down by the gifts feeling very uneasy. He opened the cards first, there was one from Mr. and Mrs. Weasley - a wizards idea of a pastoral scene; a thrashing tree (which Harry recognised as a Whomping Willow) and several magical animals trotting to and fro, one from Ginny with a flashing 'Happy Birthday' on the front.

"I enchanted it myself," she said shyly.

"Thanks," said Harry, "That's really sweet. Won't you get expelled though?"

"Oh, no, I did it at the end of last term." said a now bright red Ginny. Ron's card featured a 'Martin Miggs; the Mad Muggle' comic strip. Ron had drawn on Martin to make him fatter and then labled it 'Dudley'. Fred and George's card exploded in face, much to Mrs. Weasleys anger and everyone else's amusement. The next card he opened had a picture of a small black dog on the front. Inside it read;



'Dear Harry,

I'll send your present separately and later in case there's lots of people around.'



"Who's that from dear?" asked Mrs. Weasley.



"The Dursleys" said Harry quickly, knowing he wouldn't have to explain if another card from them showed up because that would never happened.



Harry moved onto his presents, which were interesting enough to look at from the outside. They were wrapped in what, he could only assume, was wizard wrapping paper. It was similar to muggle paper, in that was bright, with interesting patterns, however, these patterns were actually swirling, rather that just looking swirly, some were flashing and one was even singing 'Happy Birthday' (this one got extremely excited when he picked it up and started singing at the top of its voice) . The first parcel he opened (if you didn't count Hagrid's) was from Mr. and Mrs Weasley, it consisted of a large amount of home cookery and a set of gobstones. Judging by the chips they were second hand but that made Harry feel a lot better - he'd hate the Weasleys to have spent a lot on him. Ginny had got him some sweets, as had Fred and George. He eyed them suspiciously.

"Oh go on!" begged Fred,

"Their 'short effect' ones," added George, "Won't last long."

"Alright," said Harry, "If you to do."

"NO ONE IS STUPID ENOUGH TO FALL FOR THEIR OWN PRANK!" said Fred and George, highly offended at such a suggestion, "Ron'll do it."

Eventually they persuaded Hermione to eat one - Ron had flatly refused.

"At least this doesn't taste bad," thought Harry sucking the toffee. A noise half way between a scream and a roar of laughter came from beside him, Hermione's tongue was swelling up. Watching her trying to laugh with a giant tongue hanging out her mouth was the funniest thing Harry had ever seen. His tongue was now swelling up too, much to everyone, except Mrs. Weasley's, amusement. Hermione waggled her foot long purple tongue at him and he blew a giant raspberry back. They were still in hysterics as their tongues shrunk back to normal size. Soon everyone was clamouring for a toffee and the pub descended into giant tongued chaos for several minutes, during which Neville Longbottom accidentally ate a piece of Hagrid's home made toffee. The effects of this were far worse than those of the ton tongue toffees and Mrs. Weasley had to perform an unsticking charm on him before he could move his jaw again.

Ron had bought him a large bag of dungbombs and last year's 'Martin Miggs' annual and Hermione had bought him an ink set from Flourish and Blotts; one was rainbow, changing to the next colour on every letter, one changed colour according to your mood and the other was invisible ink (which came with a Revealer), when Harry lifted it out the box for a closer look he saw Hermione had drawn a little dog underneath - he understood.

"In case you thought those were boring, got you this," she said, holding out a chocolate shaped parcel, "to sweeten you up a bit." she finished, with a mischievous, lip-glossed smile.

After opening the last of his presents (an exploding snap deck from the Gryffindor boys who were there), he found another card which had been buried. Most people were too busy eating sweets and talking to notice, but Ron and Hermione were still sitting with Harry. Ginny was also hovering nearby.

"It's from Dobby!" said Harry opening it. The card - if it could be called that, it was a slip of parchment with a design on one side and writing on the other - was clearly home made. The picture consisted of several large socks of different colours and on the back it said, in very wobbly, childlike writing,



"Dear Harry Potter, sir,

A veri Hapy Bithday! Dobby is hopping you iz wel sir. Sadly Winky iznt, she is much, much wos and may hav to go away for geting betta.

Ever your frend,

Dobby



Hermione looked on the verge of tears - she was outraged on two counts;

1). Winky was very sick ("Oh that evil old Mr. Crouch - it's all his fault!), and

2). House Elves were clearly not receiving a proper education.



***



Much later the Weasleys and Harry were preparing to go back to the Burrow, they had seen Hermione off with her parents on the muggle street and were standing by the fireplace in the Leakey Cauldron. Harry had packed all his cards (save Sirius's) in his trunk, along with his presents and the wrapping paper, which he found interesting, much to Mr. Weasley's surprise (this had then lead to a series of questions about muggle wrapping paper).

"Ladies first," said Tom, offering the jar to Ginny. She took a pinch of the glittering floo powder and was gone in a second. Mrs Weasley insisted on going last, so Ginny was followed by Ron, Fred, George, Mr Weasley (with Harry's trunk), and then Harry himself.

"Are you sure you'll be alright?" Mrs. Weasley asked him. Harry knew she was remembering the time he'd wound up in Knockturn Alley.

"I've travelled by it since then, I'll be fine." Harry reassured her, taking a pinch of floo powder. He put his glasses in his pocket, took a deep breath and stepped in.

"The Burrow!" he called loudly. He didn't swallow ash, he didn't stutter, he was just spinning. He chanced opening he eyes slightly and caught the occasional glimpse of a sitting room, he wondered if they could see him. The views got longer and longer until he had stopped. He fell out rather unceremoniously onto the Weasley's kitchen floor.

"Hi." he said. Judging by the way Ginny was leaning on the table and Ron's nose was bleeding, no one ever made a graceful exit after using floo powder. His theory was confirmed when Mr. Weasley pulled Harry away to make way for Mrs. Weasley roly-polying across the hearth.

"All present and accounted for?" she asked, picking herself up. Harry couldn't help but notice her eyes dart towards him.

"Yes," said Mr. Weasley, "Ron, help Harry take his trunk upstairs."

Ron and Harry set of up the winding stairs of the Burrow. They didn't have any breath to talk until they reached the top.

"What's that?" asked Ron, staring out his window. Grinning, Harry let the owl in.

"It's from Sirius.' he said, noting the picture of a dog on the packaging. It was a small package wrapped in parchment. Tearing it off he found a note,



Dear Harry,

I'm sorry this isn't much, but without Crookshanks I have no way of shopping with out attracting attention.

Happy Birthday,

SAB



Something dropped out, as any self respecting seeker would have done, Harry caught the tiny object. It was a small pendant on a length of brown string. It was quite unremarkable - however when Harry took a closer look he had to choke down a sob. It was like a square but one corner was missing, the metal round there was shiny - it had been cut away recently. The three remaining sides read 'Padfoot, Moony and Prongs' In the centre was a large paw print, a pair of antlers and a moon had been etched inside it. Ron was looking over his shoulder they read the label together;



"This was mine, your dad had one as well and Lupin still has his." Harry noticed that there was no mention of Peter Pettigrew anywhere.

"Good." he thought. Rereading the label he suddenly thought of Lupin, Harry couldn't believe he missed a teacher, he wished Lupin hadn't left.