Chapter 5: The Burrow Revisited

Mrs. Weasley hurried the black-haired teenager into her house. She loved being a mother to everyone who entered the Burrow. It helped, even if for only a short while, to blot out all the terrible things that happened to the ones she loved. It was her oasis, and it saved her every day from being consumed by sorrow.

Harry allowed Mrs. Weasley to drag him into the door and fuss over him for five minutes until he finally announced that he was going upstairs. Ron had been smart enough to sneak in the back door once he was sure his mother was busy with Harry. He trekked up the many staircases to where he remembered Ron's room to be.

For the first time in all his visits to the Burrow, Harry noticed the many black and white pictures that lined the staircase. He remembered someone telling him that the Weasleys were a very old wizarding family. He guessed that they all came from Arthur's side of the family. One portrait showed a tall, lanky knight and Harry would have bet that his hair was bright red. It also showed various photographs of different eras or, in older cases, portraits like the knight.

Finally, he reached the door and knocked. The door was thrown open and a short, red-haired girl of fifteen shouted,

"Fool me once, shame on you. Try and fool me twice and you're dead meat!"

And in a flash of movement, she whipped out a spray can and sprayed a green liquid into his face. She laughed in triumph and slammed the door in his face.

About five seconds of silence followed; then Ginny Weasley shrieked and threw open the door. She looked up at Harry, horrified.

"I-I thought you were George." She said appalled. "He had just knocked on our door and threw a Poltergeist Grenade when we answered. I'm so sorry."

By this point, she had started to laugh. At first it was just a twitch of the mouth, but soon it grew into full-fledged giggling. Harry was completely at sea. He walked into the room and was greeted by another pause and then more uproarious laughing. Ron, who was doubled over with laughter, somehow managed to pass the mirror. Harry looked at his reflection and saw what was so funny. No doubt because of Ginny's spraying; his hair had turned bright pink and was sticking straight up.

"COME ON," Harry yelled to be heard over the laughter, "IT'S NOT THAT FUnny!"

At that last word, Harry's voice broke. Everyone stopped laughing and stared. Then they all started laughing with renewed energy except for Ron. He obviously thought it wasn't a laughing matter.

"Come on guys," Ron said with a noticeable deeper voice. "It isn't that funny."

Everybody stopped laughing at the serious look on Ron's face. Harry was scared to talk incase his voice broke again, but decided to risk it to break the awkward silence.

"So what made you thINk that I was George?" He winced as his voice broke again.

"What do you mean, you're his size," Ginny answered looking up at him.

"You're JOking, right?" Harry winced as his voice broke yet again. He was getting tired of this. "I'm shorter then Ron."

"Who, me?" Ron said in what Harry guessed was a newly acquired baritone. "I'm not taller then you!"

For the first time Harry noticed that he was taller then Ron by almost two inches. He was amazed by how much he had grown.

At that moment, Mrs. Weasley came up and told them it was time for breakfast.

"We'll be riGHT there." Harry said accidentally, forgetting for a moment that his voice was changing.

Mrs. Weasley took a double take.

"What did you just say dear?" She asked excitedly

"Nothing, he just said that we'll be right down, that's all," Hermione said quickly before Harry could embarrass himself further.

"All right, if you say so dear." She left the room, giving a quizzical look at Harry.

Through the rest of dinner and the rest of the night Harry managed not to say a single in front of Mrs. Weasley, in fear of her making a huge deal of it. The whole night, Ron, Hermione Ginny and Fred and George (once they had been told and had a good laugh) answered Harry's questions with the help of one of Fred and George's newest creations. It was gum the dissolved in your mouth that let you talk like anyone you like. It also made you able to throwing your voice with ease. Needless to say, even Hermione was impressed.

The next morning Harry awoke to finding that his voice didn't break when he tried talking. He also noticed that it stayed deep, which meant that he would have to face Mrs. Weasley sooner or later.

It happened at breakfast when Harry asked if she would please pass the eggs. Mrs. Weasley gave a shriek of delight and ran over to hug the beet-red teenager. She couldn't have been happier. Harry was extremely embarrassed and had to excuse himself from the laughing table.

All through the day when Mrs. Weasley came to Ron's room, where he, Ginny, Hermione and Harry were playing a ten round game of poker with Ron's exploding snap deck, she beamed at Harry. Harry got fed up very soon at this and almost lost his temper when she interrupted for the eleventh time. Harry was about to ask her to sod off when Hermione put her hand on his shoulder and whispered to him that she is a mother, and she couldn't help it.

With only a week to go until the concert, Harry was amazed about how long each day was. The other times he had been at the Burrow, it had seemed like he had spent no time at all there. Now time dragged on as he waited excitedly for the weird sister's concert. It seemed to drag on even more from Ron and Ginny's feverish talking about how amazing the concert, and the Weird Sisters, would be. Even though it was his second time seeing them live, he had other on his mind last time.

Finally, the day of the concert finally decided to arrive. He came downstairs, from the twin's room where he slept, to find that everyone was already awake and that there was a giant birthday cake on the table.

"Cool," he said, stifling a lawn, "Whose birthday is it?"

"It's yours, Mooncalf dung," George said form behind his father.

Harry looked around and noticed that some of the Order of the Phoenix had come: Tonks, Lupin, Mad-Eye Moody, and, to his vast surprise, Dumbledore. He wasn't sure about how he felt about Dumbledore coming. Harry had spent most of the last year being angry with Dumbledore for not speaking to him. It was only at the end of the year when Dumbledore told him this was because he feared that Voldemort might possess him and attack. He resolved not to be angry with Dumbledore for now and enjoy his birthday.

"What do you want to do first," Mr. Weasley asked. "Open presents, or eat your cake?"

Harry stared at him and at Mrs. Weasley. "You mean I can eat my cake for breakfast?"

"It's your birthday! And besides, we'll be at the concert tomorrow."

Harry thought about it for a moment.

"I think I'll open the presents first," he finally said and Tonks walked forward.

She gave him a book with a flashy cover that read:

A Seeker's Guild to Broomstick Tricks

On the front, it showed a man with a Firebolt doing what Harry had learned was a Wronski Feint.

"Cool!" Harry told beaming. Just from flipping through the book, he was already itching to try several tricks. "But I don't have my broomstick anymore."

Dumbledore coughed from where he had been waiting politely at the back of the line that had been formed. He took a parcel out from behind his back.

"Consider it an apology present" he said, and Harry could tell he truly was sorry.

"I'll test it out after I open my presents"

Tonks beamed.

Next up was Moody he handed Harry his gift, in black wrapping paper this time. Harry opened it to find a dragon leather holster.

"It's to keep your wand inside of." Moody grunted. "I'm just doing my part to save you buttocks."

Harry laughed and put his second gift next to Tonks' on the kitchen counter.

Next was Lupin. He was in worse shape as Harry had ever seen him. Cleary he had taken Sirius's death as hard or harder then Harry was.

"Here you go," he said and handed Harry a long cylinder present and a circular one, too.

Harry opened the rounded gift first. It was a telescope with dials and knobs that reminded Harry of Omnioculars.

"They look almost like Omnioculars" Lupin said, as if reading Harry mind. "But these aren't open to the public. It lets you see one thousand times farther then the naked eye, it can be set to see through walls and invisible objects and it can see three hundred and sixty degrees around you without you moving your head. Finally, it folds up into the size of a galleon so you can carry it with you any where you want."

"I also got your letter and here is my reply." He said and grinned for what Harry suspected was the first time in months.

Harry knew what was in the second present. That didn't stop him form beaming as he ripped open colourful wrapping paper. In his hand, he held the complete mirror that his father had once used. He looked up at Lupin. He didn't need words. Still grinning, Lupin went and sat down.

Hermione, Ron and Ginny stepped up to give their present to Harry. Apparently, they had all chipped in to get him something. The present, which was wrapped pages from the Dailey Prophet, was a small and squared. When Harry tore off the paper, he saw that it was a scarlet box with Harry James Potter engraved upon it. He carefully opened the gift.

The moment Harry did so a small golden blur catapulted itself out of the box and flew around Harry's head. Not being the Gryffindor seeker for nothing, it took Harry only a second out of pure surprise until he caught his golden snitch above his ear.

Harry was amazed at his gift: His own golden snitch. He opened his hands looked down at it. On the bottom was simply engraved:

For the boy who lives

Harry looked up at his friends. He didn't need to smile politely anymore. His smile was genuine.

"I love it." Harry told them simply and they beamed back at him. They sat down as well, with their smiles still spread across their faces.

Mr. Weasley and Mrs. Weasley gave Harry their present next. It was a scarlet, knitted jumper. Harry thanked Mrs. Weasley. He had always loved the jumpers she made for all the Weasleys and him. He noticed, with a blush, that it had an ash coloured, rearing lion in the entre of it that nearly covered it entirely. It was very detailed and Harry thought it might just roar if he didn't wear it often enough.

"That one there took me three years to knit, it did," Mrs. Weasley said proudly.

That surprised Harry. Although, now that thought about, he didn't know how long it took to knit their yearly present.

"Of course, its not just a normal jumper," She said, her eyes twinkling in a way Harry thought only Dumbledore could do.

From the look on Harry's face he might as well had said, "It isn't?"

"The lion is knitted from a Tebo pelt we picked up from our trip to Egypt three years ago. I've been knitting ever since in secret." She seemed extremely proud of this fact.

Harry was, to say in the least, completely stunned. He tried to say, "Thank you so much for this gift, I love it!" He really did. But what came out was, "What's a tebo?"

Mrs. Weasley was a mother. She understood.

"It's a magical warthog found in Congo. It's supposed make the cloth invisible, but you already have something for that, don't you?" She grinned knowingly. Very few people were confused. "It will block anything less then some of the most powerful carms and hexes. Didn't you have a copy of Fantastic Beasts?"

Harry pretended to shoot a nasty glare at Ron. "I used to have one. But Ron scribbled all over it!" Harry said in mock outrage. "There's a funny comment right below it concerning one of the slytherens and I usually just read the comment and go on without reading any of the stuff above it."

Ron tried to look innocently at his mother. He couldn't pull it off. He finally broke a grin and said,

"But what book would be complete without the Crudely Cannons written at least twice in it?"

Harry rolled his eyes at Ron and turned to Mrs. Weasley. "Thanks so much for the jumper! I love."

"I thought that you might, dear," said Mrs. Weasley kindly, thrilled o be celebrating her seventh son's birthday.

Mr. And Mrs. Weasley sat down. Mrs. Weasley busied her self by cutting the cake.

There were only two more people to give gifts, Fred and George and Dumbledore. Fred and George walked up with the grin that Harry immediately link with either his embarrassment or laughing at the embarrassment of some one else.

"Right out of the oven," Fred announced, "Our newest product!"

He produced, with a flourish, two silk packages that he gave to Harry. What worried Harry was the large step backwards he took.

Harry opened the first package to find a large brass tin of polish. The other one had a large eagle quill.

The twins were still grinning mischievously. "Do you want to know what they do or do you want to find out?"

Harry didn't want to risk it. "Fine then. What do they do?" he asked, preparing himself for the worst.

"So glad you asked!" George exclaimed. "The quill will make anyone but you grow bunny ears!"

"And the polish?"

"It makes whatever you polish 10 times dirtier with every rub. Made especially for certain people who love to polish stuff. Like, oh say, prefect badges for example." He looked at Ron with an almost disgusted look. Ron blushed and mumbled something.

Harry had decided a long time ago not to bug Ron about being a prefect instead of him. He knew that he'd find another use for it.

"Thanks a lot guys" despite the polish, Harry already knew how he was going to use the quill.

"No problem," George said and sat down with the others to eat cake.

At the end of the line, possibly the strongest wizard in the world stood to give this 16 year old his gift. But he had no packages.

Everybody went silent and watched with interest.

"I hope you forgive me, Harry." Dumbledore said quietly. Then he made an odd whistling sound through his teeth. To Harry, it sounded oddly familiar. Then there was a burst of vibrant red fire, and Fawkes soared around the room, singing his eerie song. Now Harry knew what that whistling sound was. Fawkes rested heavily on Harry's shoulder as he piped the last few notes of his song. He stared beadily down at Harry, as a phoenix can. Harry looked from Fawkes to Dumbledore, working it out in his head. Dumbledore smiled, and Harry positively beamed.

"Nah, really?"

"You're joking, right?"

"But..."

"You're joking"

"This is Fawkes!!"

"What about Hedwig?"

"You're not joking?"

"Oh wow, Thanks!"

Dumbledore just stood smiling as Harry ranted on delightedly. He had wanted to wait for Harry's 16th birthday to give him this gift. It wasn't a bribe; but it how much he cared for the boy and was sorry for what he had caused him, giving Harry something he treasured so much.

"He will need 3 ounces of dried thyme every day. I've talked with professor McGonagall and you may keep him in your dormitory. Now how about some of this delicious-looking cake?

Harry had never tasted anything so good.

A/N: finally!!!!! I'm so sorry for anyone reading/following this fic for my terrible update rate. I just hope it being almost twice as long as most of the other chapters kinda make up for it. That's still no excuse. I hope that school will get me back into routine.

Please, if you have any comments or think that Dumbledore is a barney old coot for giving away Fawkes, please tell me. I love other people's options.

PS: by the way, I don't own Harry Potter. That'd be JK Rowling.