Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Nope, not me.
A/N: This is the Friday chapter - the last of the five chapter update.
Well, Severus has been getting a little bit angsty, hasn't he? Especially now that he and Helena have done something they may well regret…
…which is why we're rounding up the week with a nice light Remus chapter here, in which not much happens…
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Remus awoke the next morning with an awful crick in his neck and a heap of black hair in his face.
He brushed it away gently, and smiled down on Aemilia. In sleep, she looked as innocent as a child, and her lips were curved in a slight smile.
He shook her gently. "Aemilia?"
"Mjuhuygtf."
"Aemilia?"
"Nkvjhgdvctuyf."
He smiled. "AEMILIA!"
She sat bolt upright. "I'm awake!"
"Now you are," he commented wryly, getting up. "I need to owl this stuff off for Harry if he's going to get it any time today."
"It's his birthday, isn't it?"
Remus nodded. "Yes."
Aemilia looked thoughtful. "Has Harry ever had a birthday party?"
"Doubt it," Remus answered. "Do you want a cup of tea?"
"Yes please," Aemilia replied. There was a pause before she spoke again. "Remus, if he's never had a birthday party, don't you think we should give him one?"
Remus sighed. "I would love to give Harry a birthday party, Aemilia," he answered, "but Dumbledore won't let us take him away from Privet Drive at this stage. And he is safer there than anywhere else."
"So?"
Remus looked at her strangely. "What?"
She smiled cheekily at him. "We'll have his party there."
Remus laughed. "Aemilia, I don't -"
"Think about it," she pressed him. "The boy's never had a party before. Why? The Dursleys. Don't you think they deserve to see him happy as much as he deserves to be happy?"
"Well, if Dumbledore agrees…" Remus felt himself grinning. I feel like a Marauder again, he thought.
*
"A party?" Dumbledore said when Remus raised the issue over breakfast.
"Come on, Professor!" Aemilia urged him. "You know Harry gets treated horribly! You know that he's never had a birthday party!"
"I do know that," Dumbledore replied, "which is why I say yes with my whole heart - but on one condition."
"What's that?" Remus asked.
Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. "That I can come."
*
And so it was that Remus Lupin found himself on the doorstep of Number Four Privet Drive, with almost thirty Disillusioned witches and wizards.
"We're going round the back to set up!" Aemilia whispered. He could almost hear her grinning. "Knock!"
When he heard them go, Remus knocked.
There was a yell of, "BOY! GET THE DOOR!" from inside, followed by, "Vernon, he's pruning the rosebushes at the moment!" from Petunia.
A few seconds later, Vernon opened the door. His face twisted into a nasty grimace when he saw Remus. "You!" he snarled.
"Hello," Remus replied politely.
"If you think you're coming into my house again, you can ruddy well forget it!"
Remus smiled his caustic, wolfish smile. "Oh, I think you will let me in, Mr. Dursley. I really do."
Vernon's face went purple. "Is that… Snape fellow hanging around anywhere?"
"No, he isn't," Remus answered truthfully.
"Come in, then," Vernon said gruffly.
"Where's Harry?" Remus asked when Vernon had closed the door.
"He's pruning the rosebushes," Vernon answered.
"May I see him?"
Vernon eyeballed him suspiciously. "Why?"
"Do I need a reason?" Remus asked. He'd be interested to here Vernon's reasoning on this point. And it gave him an opportunity to waste some time so the others could set up.
Vernon's face turned purple. "I am the boy's guardian -"
"Not doing much guarding then, are you?" Remus said snidely.
"I'll have you know -"
"That you've mistreated Harry since the day he turned up on your doorstep? I couldn't expect someone like you to understand what Harry is, or what he means. You call his parents vagabonds and vagrants - but the truth is, Lily and James Potter were more than you could ever comprehend."
Vernon opened his mouth, then closed it. He looked some kind of a bloated goldfish.
"I would like," Remus said very calmly, "to see Harry."
"Out back," Vernon mumbled, and scuttled away.
Remus sighed. "As much as could be expected," he murmured, before moving towards the back yard.
*
Remus smiled when he saw Harry. True to the plan, he hadn't noticed anything. Everyone in the yard was Disillusioned, so he could not see them.
He appeared to be trying to prune some very large rosebushes with shears almost as long as he was. Remus could hear him muttering under his breath. "Bloody roses… can't wait till next year, when I can use magic out of school… just one more year till I'm seventeen, and I can Apparate places and won't have to stay so bloody long with the bloody Dursleys."
"Want some help, Harry?"
"GAH!" In an instant, Remus found himself looking down Harry's wand. Paranoid as Mad-Eye, Remus thought.
"You look like Professor Lupin," Harry said, "but for all I know you're a Death Eater in disguise. Tell me something only the real Lupin would know."
"You obviously took Mad-Eye's advice to heart them," he commented dryly. "I see you don't keep your wand in your back pocket any more."
Harry's face broke into a grin. "It is you!"
Remus shook Harry's hand heartily and clapped him on the back. "You were expecting someone else, perhaps?"
"Well, no… an owl maybe, from Ron or Hermione, because it's my birthday, but they seem to have forgotten." Harry sighed. He looked depressed. "Why are you here, Professor?"
"Oh, just to say hello," Remus said casually, "and to wish you a happy birthday."
Harry smiled. "Thanks, Professor."
Remus pulled the parcel out that he and Aemilia had bought in Diagon Alley yesterday and enlarged it to its normal size. "Judging by what you were muttering, I think you'll appreciate it."
Harry tore the gaily coloured wrapping paper off. It was a large and heavy book, but Remus thought that it would probably be more interesting than the tomes he knew Hermione was prone to buying him. "A Beginner's Guide To Apparition," he breathed. "Wow, Professor!"
"I'm glad you like it," Remus said, "but I do have something else for you."
"What?"
Remus smiled. "Look over there, Harry," he said, pointing down towards the back of the yard.
"SURPRISE!"
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See you Saturday with the next chapter…
