Disclaimer: I own nothing; it all belongs to J.K.Rowling. I'm just borrowing the characters to play with for a while. This is for pleasure only, no profit is being made, and no copyright infringement is intended.

CHAPTER SIX

Hermione was shocked. "Everyone got something?"

All the heads in the room were looking at each other and nodding.

"But my gift sucked!" Hermione shrieked.

Several people were chuckling at her while others looked downright offended. Ron had been there when Hermione opened it, but in fairness, he is male. So Ron asked the question on everyone's mind. "What did he get you?"

Hermione realized how she had sounded and had the courtesy of looking a bit ashamed. "Sorry. I didn't mean it to come out like that. Umm, he got me an old, empty notebook. With a goofy looking lightning bolt on the leather binding. I'm assuming so I would look at it and think of the cheeky brat."

Nicholas raised an eyebrow. Albus's eyes widened and he leaned forward. "Was it red-stained leather and had a shield with a checkerboard pattern and the lightning over the shield?"

Hermione's eyes widened in response. "Yes it was. Oh dear, please tell me I was supposed to use it and fill it up like a normal notebook."

Nicholas's eyes nearly bulged out of there sockets. And Albus just started laughing out loud. Everyone else was looking at these three in confusion. Albus was just laughing and shaking his head at Hermione. Hermione was quite scared at the moment, while Nicholas couldn't contain his snickering very well. Albus finally managed to say, "My dear, from the sound of it, Mr. Potter managed to discover one of the Magical Tomes of Alexandria." He laughed a little more. "And you filled it out like a grocery list." His laughter at the situation seemed to be never-ending.

Hermione went pale and looked like she was going to throw up. "I did fill it out with my grocery list!" Nicholas began laughing out loud too now, and the people who were familiar with the Magical Tomes of Alexandria were cracking up.

Albus's eyes were twinkling like crazy. "Miss Granger, would you mind sharing what you know of the Magical Tomes of Alexandria with the rest of the people still confused."

"The short version," Ron and Tonks both said at the same time. Remus laughed even louder than he had been when the two spoke in unison.

Hermione frowned at the pair and explained, "The Magical Tomes of Alexandria were a wizarding copy of the Library of Alexandria. They were linked to an information store that contained all of the works within the actual library. In addition to containing many ancient wizarding books, anyone with a tome could use it to call up any of the books within the information store and it would fill out the pages. In addition, when blank it could be used to write or copy books into, and submit them to the information store." Hermione winced visibly. "And I'm pretty sure I accidentally submitted a few grocery lists as well. Oh my goodness."

Pretty much everyone knew Hermione's opinions of books and how sacrilegious this situation was to her. So they all relished in laughing and snickering at her pain.

"Supposedly they only created ten linked tomes. Though it was rumored all had been destroyed as none have surfaced in centuries. Oh crikey Harry." Hermione just sat down quietly, and began to slowly bang her head onto the table.

"Well that sounds like a pretty remarkable gift you received Miss Granger. I myself received an absolutely wonderful never ending lemon drop dish. At least I assume it is never ending. I have over two dozen extra large size cauldrons hidden in a closet filled to the brim that seem to indicate it is never ending." Albus said with a smile.

Severus added with a frown. "I wondered where those cauldrons went. I think I blamed some Gryffindors and took some points from them for that."

Albus pursed his lips. "I'm beginning to understand Dobby better. He told me they were being wasted where they had been before. I interpreted that as not being in use. I think he may lack respect for many of your students' Potion making skills." Albus finished with a twitching upper lip.

Dobby smiled and shrugged.

Albus didn't want to let his Potions Master get too angry so he quickly added, "And Harry also got me three wonderful pairs of warm woolly socks on my birthday. What about you Severus? What did you receive?"

Severus decided to allow the change of direction and said, "I received a very impressive collection of rare potions ingredients. Including a mysterious black liquid in a vial, I cannot open yet. The card informed me, I would like the substance and to wait until I was told the password to open it." Severus was carefully watching Professor Flamel while he said this and definitely noticed a flicker of recognition at the mention of a mysterious black liquid.

Severus turned his attention clearly to Nicholas. "Any idea what the liquid is Professor? Or perhaps what the password is?"

Nicholas just smiled. "Come now Professor Snape, if what you suspect were true then you know I wouldn't be able to tell you anyway." Severus just smirked, while everyone else looked on in confusion.

Ron asked, "What the heck is going on?"

Severus looked at Professor Flamel. "Any objections, Professor?"

Albus had figured out what was happening and was quite eager to hear more about this liquid. Nicholas nodded his head, "By all means please share your theories and be aware I will not be able to confirm nor deny."

Severus looked around to the crowd. "I believe Professor Flamel is involved in another significant project similar to the one he was in about a century ago with the Headmaster."

Hermione caught on to where he was going. "You mean Professor Flamel and this time, Harry instead of the Headmaster, are developing more magical uses for dragon's blood?"

Severus smiled. There are few greater joys in the world than correcting Miss Granger. "No Miss Granger. The Headmaster and Professor Flamel's project was because it was the first time we had controlled dragon's enough to be able to withdraw blood safely. This was why they needed to determine its magical properties and uses as soon as possible. I believe Professor Flamel and Mr. Potter have discovered or come across some new magical substance that they are needing to develop and determine uses for. And I believe Mr. Potter even gave me a sample of this new substance and it is the black liquid I cannot identify."

Albus nodded, "I must concur with you Severus, but this is definitely news to me, and I know we will only make things more difficult on Nicholas if we discuss it in front of him. Before we move on," Albus turned to Nicholas, "I wonder if it would be safe to ask if you think that if there were such a discovery, then would it have more or less impact on our lives than did dragon's blood?"

Nicholas smiled and took a deep breath. "Definitely…more. And on a lovely return to our subject of discussion, I received a mood ring and a muggle DVD from Mr. Potter on my birthday. Who else received something they would like to share?"

It seemed there were a lot of people wanting to continue the conversation about this discovery but they all respected Professor Flamel too much to push it. Kingsley Shacklebolt raised his voice to get people's attention. "I've got a birthday story I doubt you've heard. For my birthday," Kingsley explained "I got tickets to this muggle dueling battle. It was called World Super Ultimate Extreme Fighting Challenge. It was in Monaco, and they lock fighters in cages until one is unconscious or yields. It was pretty scary. Those guys were out to win and would fight dirty to do it. The last exhibition match was some title bout. One of the fighters was called The Deathdealer." Kinglsey started shaking his head with visible disbelief. "His opponent was The Boy-Who-Rules!"

The rest of the Order was listening with baited breath, and a few of them were snickering at Harry's alleged nickname. Kingsley continued calmly and quietly, "The Deathdealer was huge. Like seven feet tall solid muscle. But The Boy was just too fast and vicious for him. Any time The Deathdealer got close, The Boy was able to dodge and just lay into him. A few spectators in the crowd were yelling 'Give him the Prongs!' Eventually almost the entire stadium was chanting 'Prongs! Prongs! Prongs!' The Boy did this move where he ran straight at The Deathdealer, slid between The Deathdealer's legs, and punched him forcefully in the soft tissue halfway through the slide. In one swift motion he then leapt to his feet and ran halfway up the cage wall before kicking off it and back-flipping to land on The Deathdealer's back and shoulders. He followed through with his momentum grabbed The Deathdealer's head, squeezing him under the ears, and flipped him over his own head, straight through the air at least twenty feet away and a good fifteen feet up the cage wall. Whole maneuver took like three seconds. It was the craziest thing I have ever seen."

Kingsley's eyes were wide when he finished recounting the event, and he was just slowly shaking his head. "I pity the fool that messes with him."

The Order was aware Harry could take care of himself, but none of them suspected he was that good without magic.

Dobby stood back up on the table and raised his hand. The Headmaster smiled and called on Dobby. "Master Harry got Dobby a Sit'n'Spin for Dobby's birthday!"

Several people started giggling at that. Ron spoke up, "Hey I remember that! You were missing for two days and no one could find you. Finally Winky located you, and you were still spinning though you had passed out it seemed. When she woke you was the first time I saw a house elf puke!" Ron finished in fond remembrance of the day.

Dobby smiled and nodded vigorously. "It's almost as good as freedom!" The rest of the order was now cracking up with the excitable elf.

Hestia Jones stood up and said, "I don't know how many of you heard about this one yet, but over last spring I had been dating Jimmy Garbanzo, he's a reserve chaser for Puddlemere United. Well, about a week before my birthday, he dumped me, in a particularly vindictive and public manner. I wasn't exactly pleased to say the least." You could see that even today she held on a little bit of her anger. "Anyways, the day before my birthday, he was at practice, and from what I hear, was just flying normally about twenty feet up when his lucky broom, which he was riding, completely disappeared from existence. He fell and broke his wrist in such a way he had to wait for it to heal the muggle way. And naturally the next day, I received a birthday gift with a bow on it. It was his broom. And a pack of matches." She finished with a smile.

Ron was appalled. That's a professional broom! "You didn't burn it, did you?"

Hestia shook her head. "It took a lot of effort, but I didn't destroy it. I eventually returned it anonymously." Several people looked a bit disappointed. "Of course I did have a masked testicle biting hex charmed into the handle." Many people started laughing at that, though more than a few males winced and hissed.

Mad-Eye Moody quickly threw out, "I got a new flask. It's completely tamperproof, and anyone who touches it other than me turns a wicked blue for two weeks." Minerva added, "I received some lovely Griffin and Snitch earrings. They're my quidditch good luck charms."

Ron spoke up, "On my birthday was when Chudley called to me offer the keeper tryout. They told me, it was just a straight-up tryout. No guarantees about a job or anything. Sometimes I wonder though, but now it doesn't really matter. I got the Assistant Coaching Job on my own, and that I am certain of." A chorus of Weasley's cheered for their brother.

George and Fred took their turn, "We know it's not exactly coincidence"

"that on our birthday," George said.

"April Fools Day for those writing it down." Fred continued.

"Zonko decided to retire" George began.

"and sell us his business." Fred finished.

"Though we wouldn't accept until the day was over." George explained.

"Zonko pranked us by not actually pranking us." Fred said shaking his head.

"Cheeky bugger." They finished in unison.

Fleur stood up, and so did Bill. Thankfully, after three years, Fleur's English was nearly perfect and her accent only showed when she got emotional. "My gift was the kind you can never thank them properly for or repay. No one knew this but Bill and I. About two years ago in the battle of Diagon Alley, I was cursed quite viciously. I needed to heal, and had to take Skele-Gro to regrow my left hip."

Mrs. Weasley was sniffling. "I remember that dear. I hate seeing my children hurt."

"Yes Mother, but what we never told you was that I was severely damaged internally. I was never going to be able to have children." Fleur was sniffling at the memories. Molly Weasley gasped and restrained herself from hugging her daughter-in-law.

"And well, on my eve of my birthday, I fell asleep in William's arms as always, but I woke up downstairs on the couch. There on the coffee table waz…wuz…" And Fleur couldn't stop the tears from coming. Bill squeezed her shoulder and finished for her. "It was a baby rattle with a bow on it." Bill just shook his head. "And a Harry Potter action figure."

Ginny yelped. "He stole that from me!" She quickly realized this wasn't the most opportune time to yell that out. "Sorry."

Bill smiled and shook his head. "Anyways, I guess now is as good a time as any, but-"

"I'mz seecks weeks pregnant!" An overjoyed Fleur exclaimed.

Molly Weasley shrieked "Grandchildren! GRANDCHILDREN!" before she began convulsing and small bursts of electricity were jumping off her head. Arthur quickly grabbed his wife and forced a calming draft down her throat. She sagged briefly in his arms before jumping up and squealing with glee. She hurdled over the kitchen table and hugged Bill and Fleur to the point where people had to remind her of the baby.

Fred stood up. "While we're making announcements and stuff, I suppose you should know that…umm"

George finished, "We've got one coming on the way too."

Molly snapped her attention to the unmarried twins. "What! A baby!"

Fred and George both winced and nodded.

Arthur just went white. "Oh my. Whose is it? Katie? Angelina?"

Fred raised his hand, "It's mine. Well, I guess officially George's and mine."

The entire Order all stared in horror at the Weasley twins.

George began to defend them, "There was this problem. We were working on a new sweet, to emulate the effects of carrying and birthing a baby, and well, Fred took the first attempt, and it did not work as we expected."

Fred used his hands to try to calm them, "We've discontinued our work on it! It will not be happening again, but as it is now I can already feel the little guy kicking," Fred said while rubbing and sticking out his belly.

Madame Pomphrey shook her head while everyone else still just stared at the pair in fright. "Come here you idiot!"

Fred walked over to her, and she cast several revealing spells on Fred and particularly Fred's stomach. With each successive spell her eyes went wider and wider. "How the heck did you do that!"

Fred looked over at George. "I told you it was a baby!"

Madame Pomphrey rolled her eyes and shook her head at the morons. "It's not a baby you nincompoop."

Fred looked heartbroken until she added, "It's a puppy."

Fred and George both smiled like Christmas just came early. They hugged each other with smiles and tears in their eyes. The rest of the Order was still in shock staring at the sheer idiocy of the powers of creation in the hands of these two.

Fred and George looked into each other's eyes and said "Padfoot" at the same time.

Remus then burst out into tears laughing at them. "You two are scarier than Voldemort." And by now no one flinched at the name anymore.

Hagrid stood up and said, "On my birthday, I got visited by two of the most beautiful dragons you'll ever see. The larger ice blue one talked to me in my head. He told me the other was Norbert! And Norbert wanted to come see me and wish me a Happy Birthday." Hagrid was sniffling. "Norbert remembered me! He came right up to me and let me pet him. The other fellow was there to translate for us."

Charlie Weasley smiled. "I remember that dragon too. He talked to me at the reserve and introduced me to all the dragons. Now I'm their favorite. He said his name was Draco, but I refused to call him that. We settled on Drake. Haven't seen him since that one day. Still not sure if that was Harry or not."

Minerva, Tonks, and Hermione all said, "It was." They then all smiled at each other and rolled their eyes.

Remus let out a small sigh and sat back. "On my birthday I got visited by a Drow named Carl."

Several people exclaimed "What!" A few said "Drow are real?" And Severus exclaimed "Carl's a Drow!"

Remus looked at them all bemused. "Yes, yes, and yes. He said we had a mutual friend, and it's not exactly hard to guess who that is. Unless of course, you count me as a friend Severus?"

Snape just curled his lip and growled at him.

Remus snickered. "Right. Anyway, he taught me a lot more about what being a werewolf is and means. I'm not a full-fledged Lycan yet, but I'm a lot closer. Moony and I accept each other. I've even drawn him out safely during the day, and was able to reassert normal control when I wanted to. It's been three months since I felt any pain during the full moon."

Albus smiled brightly, "That is wonderful Remus. I do hope you plan to write a book."

Remus blushed and nodded.

Nicholas suggested, "Perhaps Miss Granger brought her grocery list and could get you some ancient research on Lycans." Everyone got a giggle out of that, particularly when Hermione started banging her head on the table some more.

Tonks frowned a bit and spoke up. "Cheeky bugger pranked me. At least I think he did. I honestly have no idea what to think of my gift." Hermione and Ginny both started snickering like crazy attracting a few stares and a scowl from Tonks. Hermione spoke up, "Come on Tonks, tell us about Spot."

Tonks harrumphed but told anyway. "On my birthday I received a magical alarm clock. It was a full size Dalmatian dog with a clock and a couple dials on the back of his head. You choose the time you want to wake up, and the method. It could just beep a horrible buzzer, play the Wizarding Wireless Network, or the most popular option, lick you awake. So instead of waking to an annoying buzzing or loud noise, a happy dog would lick your face until you got up. Or if you're not down with the slobber in your face, you can have it lick your hand, or wherever else you prefer."

A number of people were laughing at the unconscious blush Tonks was getting trying to subtly explain the capabilities of her new alarm clock.

"Anyways, I'd had Spot for almost two weeks, and one morning, he woke me up the usual way," Tonks had to pause until she could be heard over people's laughter. "And well, once I was up, Spot looked me in the eye, barked for the first time ever, and jumped out the window." Everyone was laughing at the confused auror now.

She just shrugged and said, "Never saw him again."

Ginny smirked, "And why did you name him Spot?"

"Shut it woman. He was a Dalmatian. I shouldn't have to explain that one." She stated angrily still fighting another blush.

Neville added, "I couldn't even begin to explain it, but on my birthday I received a healthy living Moonflower Daisy. I honestly didn't think they were real, and I talked to my element. They don't exist on Earth, so…" Neville just shrugged. "You think maybe he can apparate to the moon?"

Hermione exclaimed "Don't be ridiculous Neville, he… enh, well, maybe." Hermione forgot she can't apply rules to Harry.

Hermione added, "You know he used to go grocery shopping with me. Maybe that's why I thought the notebook was for my grocery lists. Anyways, one time I got home and I knew I had forgotten peanut butter and mayonnaise. Ron kept making those awful sandwiches." She shook her head, "As I was saying, when I unpacked my groceries, I discovered in my bags peanut butter and mayonnaise. I usually buy the generics, and these were name brands, so I know it wasn't me."

"Next time I went grocery shopping, I intentionally forgot orange juice, and once again it magically appeared in my groceries. The third time I went, I intentionally forgot to get tampons and pickles. I didn't get them, but they had been circled, high-lighted and had a frowny face next to them on my shopping list. Now I always intentionally forget at least one item. Brat never gets them for me anymore."

Tonks suggested "Maybe because you've been writing in a priceless artifact?"

Hermione was really beginning to think she had been confounded by Harry.

Ginny spoke up. "He got me a muggle diary. He assured me it was completely impenetrable from all magic, but that next time I see him, if I want he can allow it to only respond to my magic. And of course many of you remember Zach Smith." She got an evil smirk. "He came into the store nearly naked and was bright blue and wearing an oversized white diaper. He told me he had cheated on me twice, said he would never be good enough for me, and gave me a Wizard's Oath to never talk to me again."

Remus was snickering. "Tonks called him the Huffallepuffallesmurf. That kills me every time." Remus finished with tears in his eyes.

A calmer Molly Weasley stood up. "Most of you know this, but the Burrow has been magically repairing itself, from what we can tell. Rooms have been slowly getting bigger, structures more secure, corners are cleaner..."

Arthur added in "And don't forget the morning we came out and the gnomes were weeding the garden for you."

Molly rolled her eyes at that one. "Insufferable twerp. And the worst of all was he gave us a lot of money. He claimed it was for room and board. Cheeky brat won't take it back. When we tried to get the Goblins to take it back, they had been instructed to give us more."

Arthur smiled and shrugged.

Molly looked a bit frustrated. "That boy really needs a hug." She nodded her head. "And a good spanking."

Tonks, Hermione, and Ginny all wholeheartedly agreed.