Chapter 4
Surprise!
"-Woosh-" Harry landed suddenly felt hard ground beneath his feet. He opened his eyes just in time to see loads of brown hair attacking him.
"Oh Harry! I'm sooo glad to see you!" Hermione shrieked at him while giving him a hug. Harry saw Ron behind Hermione, giving them a disapproving look. Wicked, Ron does feel more about Hermione just then friendship, Harry thought.
"Let him breath, Hermione" Ron said jokingly, now grinning at Harry.
When they broke apart, Harry looked up, and said, " Hey Hermione, nice to see you." He noticed Hermione had grown a lot taller, and her hair was a bit more tamed than before.
" Ron, excellent! Now we can play Quidditch together." Harry exclaimed happily. He carefully observed his friend; he realized Ron had stopped growing in height, but was starting to develop broader shoulders. The freckles on his face had faded a little. "Wow, you look grown, man" Harry said.
"You're not bad, mate!" Ron said back.
Harry could do nothing but grin as he looks at his best friends, feeling a lot happier.
"Hey Harry, Mum prepared a feast for your birthday party tonight! Let's have some lunch first, and then we can play Quidditch in the back yard." Ginny suddenly appeared out of nowhere, said.
"Great, I'll just put my stuff upstairs. Man I'm starving!"
Just then, Mrs. Weasley came out of the kitchen. " Oh Harry you're here! Oh good, let me have a good look at you. Tut, tut, tut," Mrs. Weasley pursed her lips while examining Harry from head to toe, " a few days of decent meals should square you up. What do the Dursleys feed you, dear?" She kept the fussing over him for a few minutes.
During which, Harry had not had the heart to tell Mrs. Weasley that he had been eating rabbit food three meals a day. Meaning that even though Aunt Petunia made sure Harry didn't starve, in case Harry decided to notify his friends that the Dursleys were starving him. However, he hadn't eaten anything but toast for breakfast and grapefruit and vegetable salads for dinner and lunch. Of course adding in some cabbage casseroles and things of the sort. Dudley was still going on diet this year as the nurse at Dudley's school still wasn't satisfied with his weight after the hard dieting last year, which doesn't seem to have effect. The only significant change in Dudley was that he had taken up to boxing, which at least promised him to look more solid and toned than usual.
Fred and George rolled their eyes at their mother's fussing; seeing there is none of their business at the house anymore, said, "Well Harry, seeing that you are settled, we have to go back to our shop. Lee Jordan is taking over at the moment. Visit our shop sometime Harry, its incredible. You should see how much money we're making! Its enough to buy a dozen Firebolts!" With that, they exited the door.
Moody excused himself, and went back to the ministry; Lupin decided to make lunch with Ms. Weasley, then, do some paper work in the study.
While trudging upstairs, Harry noticed that the house looked a good deal cleaner and colorful since the last time he had been here. He involuntarily let out a great sneeze and immediately covered his ears, waiting for Ms. Black's portrait to start yelling, "Scumbags! Horrible blood traitors, and filthy mudbloods inhabiting the noble house of the pure bred Blacks! How dare you!" However, none came. He opened the curtains, only to be surprised that the supposed to be portrait was not there. Ms. Weasley and Lupin probably thought of a way to get rid of the permanent sticking charm applied to the portrait. He thought
After Harry had settled down in his bedroom, and had a delicious lunch of chicken sandwiches made by Ms. Weasley, the trio (Harry, Ron and Ginny), brooms on their back went outside to play Quidditch. Hermione followed them outside, carrying Fun Facts on Arithmancy.
Harry, after being banned from the team by the toad Umbridge, hadn't touched his broomstick. As he soared through the air, he felt free. All the miserable memories leaked slowly out of him. This is where I belong, Harry thought. No one dares take away my privilege of playing Quidditch!
Harry was so happy to be in the air that he did a number of loops and twirls and almost vertical dives.
"Yo, Harry! Stop twirling there and lets start a game of Quidditch. We'll just take turns throwing the quaffle, while one of us plays keeper. We'll switch positions every now and then. You be keeper first, Harry. Ready? Now GO!"
After an enjoyable game of three hours, the trio all sweaty and covered with dirt, plus Hermione retired back into the house. They took turns washing up, and dressed up for the party.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Harry yawned and sat up. He noticed the room was a fair amount darker then before. It must be six o'clock already, he thought. Harry didn't realize that he had dosed off while waiting to use the bathroom. He quickly jumped up, took a quick shower, don some his best pair of jeans (which were still three sizes too large), a clean T-shirt and raced out the room.
He bumped right into Ron. " Oh finally, you're awake, and about time too! I thought you had turned into 'Sleeping Beauty'", Ron said, smirking.
"Shut up, Ron." Harry laughed, pushing Ron on the shoulder.
"Alright. You should hurry now, almost everyone has arrived, and the birthday boy is missing."
"Right."
"SURPRISE!" suddenly the room flashed with all colors, while everyone yelled. Harry jumped; jaw opened gawking at the crowd that stood before him. He was surprised that so many people remember and care about his birthday. There stood Mrs. Weasley, Mr. Weasley, Hermione, Lupin, Moody, Tonks, Dumbledore, Fred and George, Bill and Charley, also a bunch of other members of the Order, and last but not least, Snape, who was wearing a sour expression on his face. What he was most surprised at were the other two fellow students that accompanied him the Ministry of Magic had also come celebrate his birthday. Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood.
Neville was beaming at Harry. He said, " Hello, Harry. Why don't you come down and let's start the feast!"
Harry grinned, noticing that Neville didn't sound as shy as he was before. There was a certain note of confidence in his voice that couldn't be found last year. Probably the attack at the ministry made him realize he was more than he seems, Harry thought.
"Ahh, yes Harry. Now if you don't mind to come down here quickly and be seated. Some of us are already starving and ready to swallow a hippogriff." Professor Dumbledore said with a twinkle in his blue eyes, and nodding his head towards his right.
Harry turned his head to see Ron had already sneaked to the table from behind him when he wasn't looking; now was gazing at the food intently as if it were about to disappear if he stopped looking at it.
"Oh, right." Harry said, still lost at words. He took a seat beside Ron, and everyone shuffled into their chairs around him.
"Now let the feast, begin." Dumbledore said in an imitation as if in the Great Hall at Hogwarts.
Everyone dug into the food; Ron, obviously with the most enthusiasm, stuffing his mouth with mashed potatoes, and chicken and all the food Ms. Weasley prepared.
Hermione flinched with distaste, saying, "Ron! When will you learn to eat with etiquette? You look as if you will never live to have another meal! Ugh. my appetite is fading away, all because of you!"
" 'Eelax 'moine. Usdun ookaee." Ron said with a full mouth, still not bothering to slow down his inhaling of food.
Harry on the other hand was also extremely hungry and eating in a rapid speed, but he knew better to stuff his whole mouth full of food. In order to prevent the two from starting another row, Harry swallowed his food with the help of a swig of pumpkin juice, and said, " So what did you guys do for summer?" deliberately trying to change the subject before the situation got nasty.
"Well I was planning to visit Victor in Bulgaria. However, mom said it was too far away and too dangerous. So I just stayed at home reading some books for one week. Then I arrived here and helped with the cleaning and redecoration of the house." Hermione said matter-of-factly, ignoring Ron's glare when she mentioned Krum, the famous Seeker of the Bulgarian Quidditch team.
"How are Fred and George? Is your mom still angry at them for not finishing school?" Harry asked, still desperately trying to calm the tension between his two best friends.
At the mention of Fred and George, Ron grinned broadly. He swallowed his food with a loud " Gulp" ("Ron!" Hermione cried out.) Ignoring her, he turned to Harry and said, " Their shop is absolutely-what do you call it? AWESOME! Yeah that's the word, awesome. Mum was angry at first, mind you but then Fred and George started making TONS of money. You should see mum's face when the twins brought back a bag full of galleons after only one day of work. The money they earned in one day was twice the amount dad earned for a week!" Ron said excitedly.
"Even though mum wasn't happy about the twins selling pranksters material, she was definitely happy to see the twins make so much money and being successful in business." Ginny suddenly said, beside Hermione. " Although I still can't believe they only got three OWLs each."
"How are you Neville? Did your Grandmother scold you? You look excellent to me." Harry asked.
"Oh me, well Grandma did lecture on and on how dangerous it was, and how reckless I was. After she had calmed down, she said how brave I was, and how she was proud of me." Neville said grinning ear-to-ear, beaming. " She said that I was starting to resemble my parents."
"Good for you Neville."
"Mum almost killed us when we went back home, saying that she would definitely strangle us to death if we ever do something like that again. Like she meant it." Ginny said with a shrug.
The chatting went on until the food on the table was totally devoured, and everyone was lying back in their chair looking satisfied, Dumbledore stood up and said, " now that we have filled our stomachs with the excellent food Molly prepared, (Ms. Weasley blushed a little) let us now start on the birthday cake."
After that, they sang the birthday song and ate the cake with gold and red as icings, prepared by Ms. Weasley. Harry was drowsy after that, in spite that he had just slept before the party. He decided to go to bed, but as he walked up the stairs-
" Harry! May I have a word with you?" Dumbledore called out to him from behind.
Harry nodded, and followed the professor into an empty room.
" Sit down, please."
"What do you want with me?" Harry said sounding grumpy because he was tired.
"I see that you are tired. I will make this quick. Sirius's final testament will be announced tomorrow 8 o'clock at the Ministry of Magic. I expect you to be there, as I know there will be things left to you. I know that you feel bad about it, but please be there on time. Good night, Harry." With this, Dumbledore rose and left the room.
Sirius's will, how could he have forgotten. With that another wave of guilt washed over him, he knew that Sirius wouldn't blame on him, but no matter what, he was responsible to part of it. Stop feeling guilty, you'll kill yourself like this. Just go to sleep. Harry thought to himself, as he trudged heavily upstairs to his room. He was so tired that he fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillows, without bothering to undress.
"-Woosh-" Harry landed suddenly felt hard ground beneath his feet. He opened his eyes just in time to see loads of brown hair attacking him.
"Oh Harry! I'm sooo glad to see you!" Hermione shrieked at him while giving him a hug. Harry saw Ron behind Hermione, giving them a disapproving look. Wicked, Ron does feel more about Hermione just then friendship, Harry thought.
"Let him breath, Hermione" Ron said jokingly, now grinning at Harry.
When they broke apart, Harry looked up, and said, " Hey Hermione, nice to see you." He noticed Hermione had grown a lot taller, and her hair was a bit more tamed than before.
" Ron, excellent! Now we can play Quidditch together." Harry exclaimed happily. He carefully observed his friend; he realized Ron had stopped growing in height, but was starting to develop broader shoulders. The freckles on his face had faded a little. "Wow, you look grown, man" Harry said.
"You're not bad, mate!" Ron said back.
Harry could do nothing but grin as he looks at his best friends, feeling a lot happier.
"Hey Harry, Mum prepared a feast for your birthday party tonight! Let's have some lunch first, and then we can play Quidditch in the back yard." Ginny suddenly appeared out of nowhere, said.
"Great, I'll just put my stuff upstairs. Man I'm starving!"
Just then, Mrs. Weasley came out of the kitchen. " Oh Harry you're here! Oh good, let me have a good look at you. Tut, tut, tut," Mrs. Weasley pursed her lips while examining Harry from head to toe, " a few days of decent meals should square you up. What do the Dursleys feed you, dear?" She kept the fussing over him for a few minutes.
During which, Harry had not had the heart to tell Mrs. Weasley that he had been eating rabbit food three meals a day. Meaning that even though Aunt Petunia made sure Harry didn't starve, in case Harry decided to notify his friends that the Dursleys were starving him. However, he hadn't eaten anything but toast for breakfast and grapefruit and vegetable salads for dinner and lunch. Of course adding in some cabbage casseroles and things of the sort. Dudley was still going on diet this year as the nurse at Dudley's school still wasn't satisfied with his weight after the hard dieting last year, which doesn't seem to have effect. The only significant change in Dudley was that he had taken up to boxing, which at least promised him to look more solid and toned than usual.
Fred and George rolled their eyes at their mother's fussing; seeing there is none of their business at the house anymore, said, "Well Harry, seeing that you are settled, we have to go back to our shop. Lee Jordan is taking over at the moment. Visit our shop sometime Harry, its incredible. You should see how much money we're making! Its enough to buy a dozen Firebolts!" With that, they exited the door.
Moody excused himself, and went back to the ministry; Lupin decided to make lunch with Ms. Weasley, then, do some paper work in the study.
While trudging upstairs, Harry noticed that the house looked a good deal cleaner and colorful since the last time he had been here. He involuntarily let out a great sneeze and immediately covered his ears, waiting for Ms. Black's portrait to start yelling, "Scumbags! Horrible blood traitors, and filthy mudbloods inhabiting the noble house of the pure bred Blacks! How dare you!" However, none came. He opened the curtains, only to be surprised that the supposed to be portrait was not there. Ms. Weasley and Lupin probably thought of a way to get rid of the permanent sticking charm applied to the portrait. He thought
After Harry had settled down in his bedroom, and had a delicious lunch of chicken sandwiches made by Ms. Weasley, the trio (Harry, Ron and Ginny), brooms on their back went outside to play Quidditch. Hermione followed them outside, carrying Fun Facts on Arithmancy.
Harry, after being banned from the team by the toad Umbridge, hadn't touched his broomstick. As he soared through the air, he felt free. All the miserable memories leaked slowly out of him. This is where I belong, Harry thought. No one dares take away my privilege of playing Quidditch!
Harry was so happy to be in the air that he did a number of loops and twirls and almost vertical dives.
"Yo, Harry! Stop twirling there and lets start a game of Quidditch. We'll just take turns throwing the quaffle, while one of us plays keeper. We'll switch positions every now and then. You be keeper first, Harry. Ready? Now GO!"
After an enjoyable game of three hours, the trio all sweaty and covered with dirt, plus Hermione retired back into the house. They took turns washing up, and dressed up for the party.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Harry yawned and sat up. He noticed the room was a fair amount darker then before. It must be six o'clock already, he thought. Harry didn't realize that he had dosed off while waiting to use the bathroom. He quickly jumped up, took a quick shower, don some his best pair of jeans (which were still three sizes too large), a clean T-shirt and raced out the room.
He bumped right into Ron. " Oh finally, you're awake, and about time too! I thought you had turned into 'Sleeping Beauty'", Ron said, smirking.
"Shut up, Ron." Harry laughed, pushing Ron on the shoulder.
"Alright. You should hurry now, almost everyone has arrived, and the birthday boy is missing."
"Right."
"SURPRISE!" suddenly the room flashed with all colors, while everyone yelled. Harry jumped; jaw opened gawking at the crowd that stood before him. He was surprised that so many people remember and care about his birthday. There stood Mrs. Weasley, Mr. Weasley, Hermione, Lupin, Moody, Tonks, Dumbledore, Fred and George, Bill and Charley, also a bunch of other members of the Order, and last but not least, Snape, who was wearing a sour expression on his face. What he was most surprised at were the other two fellow students that accompanied him the Ministry of Magic had also come celebrate his birthday. Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood.
Neville was beaming at Harry. He said, " Hello, Harry. Why don't you come down and let's start the feast!"
Harry grinned, noticing that Neville didn't sound as shy as he was before. There was a certain note of confidence in his voice that couldn't be found last year. Probably the attack at the ministry made him realize he was more than he seems, Harry thought.
"Ahh, yes Harry. Now if you don't mind to come down here quickly and be seated. Some of us are already starving and ready to swallow a hippogriff." Professor Dumbledore said with a twinkle in his blue eyes, and nodding his head towards his right.
Harry turned his head to see Ron had already sneaked to the table from behind him when he wasn't looking; now was gazing at the food intently as if it were about to disappear if he stopped looking at it.
"Oh, right." Harry said, still lost at words. He took a seat beside Ron, and everyone shuffled into their chairs around him.
"Now let the feast, begin." Dumbledore said in an imitation as if in the Great Hall at Hogwarts.
Everyone dug into the food; Ron, obviously with the most enthusiasm, stuffing his mouth with mashed potatoes, and chicken and all the food Ms. Weasley prepared.
Hermione flinched with distaste, saying, "Ron! When will you learn to eat with etiquette? You look as if you will never live to have another meal! Ugh. my appetite is fading away, all because of you!"
" 'Eelax 'moine. Usdun ookaee." Ron said with a full mouth, still not bothering to slow down his inhaling of food.
Harry on the other hand was also extremely hungry and eating in a rapid speed, but he knew better to stuff his whole mouth full of food. In order to prevent the two from starting another row, Harry swallowed his food with the help of a swig of pumpkin juice, and said, " So what did you guys do for summer?" deliberately trying to change the subject before the situation got nasty.
"Well I was planning to visit Victor in Bulgaria. However, mom said it was too far away and too dangerous. So I just stayed at home reading some books for one week. Then I arrived here and helped with the cleaning and redecoration of the house." Hermione said matter-of-factly, ignoring Ron's glare when she mentioned Krum, the famous Seeker of the Bulgarian Quidditch team.
"How are Fred and George? Is your mom still angry at them for not finishing school?" Harry asked, still desperately trying to calm the tension between his two best friends.
At the mention of Fred and George, Ron grinned broadly. He swallowed his food with a loud " Gulp" ("Ron!" Hermione cried out.) Ignoring her, he turned to Harry and said, " Their shop is absolutely-what do you call it? AWESOME! Yeah that's the word, awesome. Mum was angry at first, mind you but then Fred and George started making TONS of money. You should see mum's face when the twins brought back a bag full of galleons after only one day of work. The money they earned in one day was twice the amount dad earned for a week!" Ron said excitedly.
"Even though mum wasn't happy about the twins selling pranksters material, she was definitely happy to see the twins make so much money and being successful in business." Ginny suddenly said, beside Hermione. " Although I still can't believe they only got three OWLs each."
"How are you Neville? Did your Grandmother scold you? You look excellent to me." Harry asked.
"Oh me, well Grandma did lecture on and on how dangerous it was, and how reckless I was. After she had calmed down, she said how brave I was, and how she was proud of me." Neville said grinning ear-to-ear, beaming. " She said that I was starting to resemble my parents."
"Good for you Neville."
"Mum almost killed us when we went back home, saying that she would definitely strangle us to death if we ever do something like that again. Like she meant it." Ginny said with a shrug.
The chatting went on until the food on the table was totally devoured, and everyone was lying back in their chair looking satisfied, Dumbledore stood up and said, " now that we have filled our stomachs with the excellent food Molly prepared, (Ms. Weasley blushed a little) let us now start on the birthday cake."
After that, they sang the birthday song and ate the cake with gold and red as icings, prepared by Ms. Weasley. Harry was drowsy after that, in spite that he had just slept before the party. He decided to go to bed, but as he walked up the stairs-
" Harry! May I have a word with you?" Dumbledore called out to him from behind.
Harry nodded, and followed the professor into an empty room.
" Sit down, please."
"What do you want with me?" Harry said sounding grumpy because he was tired.
"I see that you are tired. I will make this quick. Sirius's final testament will be announced tomorrow 8 o'clock at the Ministry of Magic. I expect you to be there, as I know there will be things left to you. I know that you feel bad about it, but please be there on time. Good night, Harry." With this, Dumbledore rose and left the room.
Sirius's will, how could he have forgotten. With that another wave of guilt washed over him, he knew that Sirius wouldn't blame on him, but no matter what, he was responsible to part of it. Stop feeling guilty, you'll kill yourself like this. Just go to sleep. Harry thought to himself, as he trudged heavily upstairs to his room. He was so tired that he fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillows, without bothering to undress.