Disclaimer: I'm too bloody tired to think of something witty to say, so here's the bloody friggin' truth: I don't bloody own friggin' Harry Potter, or anything remotely friggin' close to it.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince due July 16th, 2005!!! I'm so excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(exclamation to the infinity power)!!!!!!!!!!!
Chapter 6-A Big Party
Harry woke up on the morning of his sixteenth birthday feeling incredibly refreshed. He sat up in his bed and stretched, saying, "Good morning, Sirius," through a fully unnecessary yawn. The painting replied, "Good morning yourself, and happy birthday," causing a wide grin to make its way to Harry's face. Harry then jumped out of his bed energetically and dressed himself, then left the room feeling uncharacteristically happy.
He went into the kitchen to see a small crowd gathered, including Mrs. Weasley, Ginny, and Hermione.
"I suppose Ron is still sleeping in?"
"Of course he is, the lazy dunderhead. I don't know how he can sleep so long," Hermione said distractedly. She was reading the Daily Prophet, and apparently there was nothing of great interest, because her eyes were not bulging out of her head and she was not hiding the paper from Harry, as she had the previous two years whenever the newspaper decided to insult or degrade Harry.
"So, what's for breakfast on this fine July 31?" Harry made sure to emphasize the date, seeing as none of the ladies seemed to remember the significance of the day.
Mrs. Weasley answered him. "Oh, just a bit of French toast and orange juice, Harry dear."
Harry just stood there looking puzzled. Didn't these very same people just yesterday help him plan the greatest party imaginable? Why was it that they all seemed to have forgotten his birthday so readily?
Ginny took this opportunity to say what every person in the room wanted to. "HAPPY BIRTHDAY HARRY!!!" She looked up to see what Harry's reaction would be, but she froze before she could comprehend the look of pure joy that spread across Harry's face. Coincidently, Harry's face took this opportunity to morph his face into a puzzled expression. Everyone in the room was now looking at him in complete shock.
It was at this time that Ron decided to make his grand and groggy entrance. Rubbing his eyes and noisily moistening his lips, he muttered, "Mornin' 'Arry. Mornin' all." He quit rubbing his eyes and looked up at Harry. Since when do I look up at Harry? With this, his face took on the same shocked expression that the girls' had.
"What is wrong with you guys-why are you looking at me as if--" Harry paused as comprehension dawned on him. "Ron, when did you find the time to shrink?"
"I didn't shrink, mate. You grew. Oh, and by the way, happy birthday." Ron's voice brought the girls out of their trances.
Hermione and Mrs. Weasley finally got out their Happy Birthdays, and Ginny shook her head violently before getting up and walking over to Harry.
"Well..." she took a breath through her teeth. "I guess, well...all I can say is happy birthday. That, and I guess I just want to ask how you managed to grow a foot overnight."
Harry had had enough. He walked over to the double-door mirror that was situated just inside the door and surveyed himself. He fought hard to suppress the gasp that wanted to escape his lips, but failed dismally. He was staring at a 6 foot, 4 inch version of himself. If it weren't for his face, Harry would not have believed the person staring out of the mirror to be himself. Every muscle in his body was well defined; his broad shoulders accentuated his buff arms, and his rock-hard abs were clearly visible through his well-fitting shirt (the shirt was a feat in itself, as it used to be one of Dudley's. Harry hadn't noticed before, but the formerly-overly-large tee-shirt now fit splendidly).
He walked back to his room, laid down on his bed, and closed his eyes. This is all a very strange dream. When I open my eyes, I will be my regular, scrawny self, and my friends will not gawk at my newly muscular body. Harry opened his eyes slowly, first the right, and after peeking around a little, the left. He sat up and looked at himself again. Nope. Still a foot taller than yesterday. I guess it's not such a bad thing. So Harry stood and left his room, heading back to the kitchen.
What he found there made him think of a bunch of Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil replicas, because everyone who was now in the kitchen was now conversing in low, excited voices about Harry's new appearance. He cleared his throat loudly, causing the noise to die down completely.
"Well, seeing as this is not a dream, and I really do look like this, can we please get on to our regularly scheduled day?"
Hermione sniggered at his comment, and when Ron asked her why she was laughing, she replied simply, "Muggle joke."
After a tense moment of silence, everybody in the room broke into smiles and went over to Harry to shake his hand and wish him a happy birthday. Now there were Remus, Tonks, Mundungus Fletcher, and the Weasley twins included, and every single one of them took the chance to comment on Harry's appearance.
"So, Harry, are you gonna let us in on this little prank of yours?" said Fred or George.
"Yeah, 'cos we'll gladly take anything you did to get yourself so buff overnight." said George or Fred.
"Hey maybe we could sell it!"
"Are you gonna tells, or what?"
"Do we have to force it out of you?"
"No, Fred, we can't do that now, look of the size of this bloke-"
"I was only trying to get him to talk, George-"
"Oi! Gred and Forge! While you two are having a right nice little conversation to no one, I've been standing here trying to tell you that I have no idea!" Seeing the suspicious looks on the twins' faces he added, "Honestly! Ask anyone, when would I have had the time to do it? I was too busy all day yesterday! Ask Sirius if you want!"
Those addressed as Gred and Forge looked at each other quizzically.
"You want to tell 'im Fred?"
"No, no, you go ahead George."
"Alright, alright," and with all seriousness he continued, "Harry, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but Sirius-well, he died. He's dead Harry."
"NO KIDDING?!" Harry's voice seeped with sarcasm. "I meant that you can ask Sirius' portrait. It's hanging in my bedroom, hence, he would be able to tell you whether I did anything while I was alone in there."
A look that said, "Oh," in a sing-song voice came to the twins' faces now, and with that, they accepted the fact that Harry didn't purposely alter himself. After that, Remus walked up to him to get his say in.
"Happy birthday, Harry. You know, I've never heard of anything like this happening. A one-foot growth spurt in one night. I'll have to ask around to see whether anything like this has happened before."
"I would appreciate that, Remus, seeing as I would rather like to know that myself. I would really like to know how this happened." A sudden thought popped into his head, and he couldn't help wondering whether his overnight growth spurt could have anything to do with 'the power the Dark Lord knows not' that the prophecy mentioned.
Tonks approached him next. "Wotcher, Harry. Happy birthday."
"Thanks."
"I was thinking. Maybe you could be a metamorphmagus. It would make sense, you know. If you really wanted to change your appearance, then it would just happen if you were. All you would have had to do is concentrate. You want to test yourself to see if you are one?"
Harry nodded and said, "Why not? It's worth a try if it'll explain why I'm suddenly so different."
"Right. So, all you gotta do is concentrate really hard on what you want to change and how you want it to look. Start with something simple, like hair or eye color. Go ahead, try something."
Harry frowned in concentration. He imagined himself with no scar, with just a plain forehead free from lightning bolts. After about 30 seconds of this, he opened his eyes and looked at Tonks hopefully. She had an eager look on her face, but when Harry asked, "Well?"
"What were you trying to change?"
"My scar-is it still there?"
"Yep. Sorry, Harry, no luck, you're no metamorphmagus."
"Ah, well, I didn't really expect it anyways." Tonks went to sit down at the table, where there were heaping piles of French toast calling her name. Speaking of which, Harry thought he heard a particularly squeaky voice saying, "Eat me, Harry, eat me!" over and over again.
Harry made his way to the breakfast table and started piling on the toast. "Not hungry at all, are you, mate," Ron asked, noticing that for the first time in history someone had more food on his plate than he did. Harry just smiled in return.
"You know, Harry," Hermione had finally come to her senses, "I think I'll need to do some research on this. I'm sure it's happened before, there has to be some logical explanation for it. What do you say to helping me when we get back to school?"
"That'd be great Hermione, as long as we have time. I would really like to know what's happened to me." After this statement, Harry suddenly dropped the piece of French toast he was about to shove in his mouth and sprinted out of the room with incredible speed. Ron and Hermione gave each other a sidelong glance before running after him.
"Harry, wait up! What are you doing, is everything okay?" Hermione looked worried.
"Yeah, everything's great, I just realized something-Sirius' portrait! It overlooks my bed, maybe he could tell me something!" They reached his room and walked over to the fireplace. "Hello Sirius."
"Hello Harry, Ron, Hermione. How are things?"
"Great. Only, I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm about a foot taller than I was 24 hours ago."
"Ah, yes, that. I was wondering how long it would take you to figure that out. I noticed it when you woke up this morning." Sirius was close to laughing now.
"Well, I was just wondering, did you happen to see anything happen to me last night that could explain this?" Harry was now very close to the painting, looking very excited and hopeful.
"I'm afraid I didn't Harry. You see, I was not in this frame last night. I had other business to attend to." Harry's face fell. He was so sure Sirius would have seen something. "Sorry, Harry."
"No, it's alright. I guess I'll just have to figure it out another way." He and the other three trudged out of the room looking very disappointed.
OOO
The rest of the day brought a steady stream of Order members into headquarters, all of them dropping by to wish Harry a happy birthday. Despite the earlier disappointment, Harry managed to have one of the best days of his life. He found himself counting down the hours until his party began.
He went into the party-room 10 minutes before the party was scheduled to be started and admired his handiwork. The former bare office was now a splendid gathering place. It had plenty of comfortable-looking furniture, including dozens of armchairs, a couple of huge sofas, and even a daybed in the corner, all of which was bedecked in the warm colors of fall: red, golden yellow, and a soft tan. There was a bird's-eye maple table in the center that was a six-foot square, and the walls were covered n shelves made of the same wood. The shelves were covered in an assortment of things, from books to magical gadgets to quidditch memorabilia.
Mrs. Weasley then came in, carrying a tray of food. Harry offered to help, and she said, "Yes, yes, just go into the kitchen and grab something." She began to bustle about the room, setting the food on the table in a way that made it look inviting.
Harry went back to the kitchen, but was sidetracked due to the doorbell choosing to ring. He went over to it and answered, and as soon as he opened the door he was greeted by a large group of poeple, all of which were carrying gifts. Many of them shouted a jubilant, "Harry!" and then proceeded to pile their gifts on top of him. Wobbling under the weight of it all, he was happy to find that his two best friends were standing by, however annoying their laughing was.
"Oh, shut up, you two, and help me get this stuff into the party room."
When everybody had finally arrived and was in the party room, Dumbledore cleared his throat, intending to make an announcement. "Good evening, all! Tonight we celebrate the sixteenth year of this fine young man we call Harry Potter!" There was applause and cheering after this. "But I do not think we came to stand around and talk about it. Help yourselves to the buffet!" More cheering, and then a great rush to the table in the center of the room.
After stuffing themselves silly, people began to get restless, so Molly Weasley said above the din, "I believe it's time for gifts! Come along, Harry, over here." She led him to where the pile of presents was sitting. After a ridiculous chorus of the "Happy Birthday" song, a very red and embarrassed Harry started to make the pile of unwrapped presents smaller.
The first gift was from Hermione; Harry was expecting a book of some sorts, but she surprised him with what turned out to be a small, realistic model of a phoenix. "Cool, Hermione, thanks!" After that, he receive a quidditch play book from Ron, a huge box of joke candy and items from the twins and Ginny, and a good deal of regular sweets from Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. Lupin and Tonks put their minds together and bought him an incredible encyclopedia of Defense books, and Moody got him a wand holster.
It was Dumbledore's gift that puzzled him most, though. Harry prized the box open slowly, and what he found a very interesting watch. It had 12 hands and what looked like a bunch of planets revolving around in it. He looked up at Dumbledore, who gave him a wink and proceeded to his usual eye-twinkling business. It must have something to do with that time spell he uses. The thought conjured itself up in Harry's mind, and he somehow knew it was right. However, he did not dwell on it and continued opening the rest of his gifts, which included quite a bit of Zonko's products and sweets.
As Harry walked back down to his bedroom after the party feeling exhausted, he thought to himself, All in all, not a bad day. An impressive growth spurt plus a brilliant birthday party. He threw himself onto his bed and fell asleep instantly.
A/N: I know, lousy ending, I'm bad at ending chapters. Well, on with the thanks!!
GringottsVault711: Thanks so much for reading and reviewing. You're story Year Six was my first favorite and it flatters me that you like my story.
loonygrl90: thanks for the tip, it was greatly appreciated.
Brook Monroe, funnyloon00, Laura Lovegood, and HulaHomer: thanks for reading and reviewing, you don't know how much it means to me that I have readers.
Well, that's it so far! Hope this chapter doesn't disappoint you!
