Ch 4- Harry's Birthday
The next week went by fast for everyone at the burrow. They were kept busy by new joke games and gags sent over from Fred and George's joke shop. Even Hermione joined them. Before they knew it, it was the day before Harry was to arrive at the burrow. They headed down to Diagon Alley to buy him birthday gifts.
"I think we should throw him a surprise party for when he gets here." Ron suggested.
"Yeah," Ginny chimed in "After having to stay at that awful house all this time. It doesn't have to be a big party, just like us and some members from the Order!"
"I think that's a splendid idea Ron!" Mrs. Weasley said as they walked into Fred and George's joke shop. Ron grinned, having said something right was always good. They spent the rest of the day picking gifts out for Harry and planning his party. By the time they got home, they were exhausted.
Ron plopped down onto his bed and fell asleep almost immediately. Immediately, that is, after thinking about a certain some one…
Over in Ginny's room, the two girls were still awake, painting each others nails and talking about the next days events.
"I can't wait to see the look on his face! He'll be so surprised!" Ginny said excitedly.
"Yeah, I think it'll really do him some good with what happened to Sirius and all…" Hermione trailed off. "That was a really nice gesture of Ron." She said with her eyes fixed on one spot in the beige carpe, looking like she was in a daze.
"Done!" Ginny said. "It's instant dry so you could go to sleep now if you want, I am anyways. G'night."
"Night." Hermione said as she climbed under the covers of her bed.
The next morning everyone woke up early to help set up for the party. Harry was to arrive at the burrow. Lupin, Kingsley, Tonks and Mad-Eye went to the Dursley's house and threatened them that they would curse them if they didn't let Harry leave. They left a tiny bag of floo powder and told Harry Lupin would be back at exactly 2:00p.m. to leave in the fireplace with him. Hermione got up out of bed, and put on one of her new outfits her mother had bought her; a pair of light blue jeans that fit nicely and a light pink spaghetti-strapped tank-top with a small yellow flower in the upper right corner. She then brushed her hair and went to walk downstairs for breakfast, but caught herself in the mirror and stopped. She had a sudden urge to look good for Ron. She knew Ron wouldn't care how she looked, but the urge overcame her. She didn't know why, or she didn't want to know why rather. She had bought a small kit of make-up when she was out with her mother and decided to test it out. She didn't want to over-exert herself like some people she knew, "Cough, Lavender, cough Parvati cough." She decided to just tone it up a bit. She put a bit of blush on, some pretty pinkish colored lip-gloss and a light eye-shadow. Her mother had taught her how to use make-up. To make it look like you weren't wearing any. Just to bring out your natural features. Then she pulled her hair up into a loose bun, leaving some curls to dangle loosely behind her ears. Once Hermione was satisfied, she headed downstairs. When she reached the bottom, she found Mrs. Weasley bustling around the kitchen cooking, while the others were setting the table outside or decorating.
"Good morning dear." Mrs. Weasley said.
"Good morning Mrs. Weasley." Hermione said politely.
"Here Mum, we had an extra plate." Ron said holding out a plate to his mother. But as Ron looked and saw Hermione, he dropped the plate and it shattered to pieces. Ron broke his gaze from Hermione who blushed furiously. He looked from the shattered pieces on the ground, quickly glanced at Hermione and then looked to his mother apologetically.
"Oh Ron, it's fine!" Mrs. Weasley said to Ron and also glanced quickly at Hermione who was smiling slightly at her feet. Mrs. Weasley flicked her wand "Reparo!" and the shattered plate pieces turned whole again.
Feeling the tension, Mrs. Weasley broke the awkward silence.
"Oh, um Hermione dear, Ginny is using the helium machine to blow up some balloons, why don't you go and help her?" Hermione nodded and hurried away still blushing.
"Why is your face so red?" asked Ginny when Hermione reached the living room.
"Hm? Oh…I dunno…um, need help?" Hermione said trying to change the subject. Ginny gave her an "I-know-your-not-telling-the-truth-but-I'll-drop-it-anyways" look and handed Hermione a balloon. "Why am I blushing so much?" Hermione thought to herself. "All's he did was drop a plate…and it just so happened to be when he looked at me…it was just a coincidence. And what was that look Mrs. Weasley gave me anyways?"
They spent the rest of the afternoon cooking, blowing up balloons, and hanging up streamers. Fred and George even enchanted a few toy snitches to fly around. They looked exactly like the real ones, only, if you tried to catch one, it'd explode, and confetti would fly everywhere. Before they knew it, it was five to two. The whole lot of them gathered in the living room and found a piece of furniture to hide behind. Hermione and Ron hid under a small end table, while Mrs. Weasley stood by the light switch so she could flick them on, on queue.
"Ok, now, when he gets here with Lupin, let him look around for a couple of seconds, then when I turn on the lights, stand up and shout surprise!" Mrs. Weasley told them. They nodded and she flicked the lights off. It was one minute to two. Ron and Hermione looked at each other, both excited to see Harry's face. They both giggled silently. Just then they heard a loud whoosh and saw a green flame through the white table cloth. Hermione peaked out a small part in the table cloth. Harry stood beside Lupin looking extremely confused.
"Hello?" he said. "Ron? Hermione? They said 2:00 sharp didn't they?" he asked Lupin.
Just then the light flicked on and they all revealed themselves with a big shout.
"SURPRISE!"
Harry looked absolutely shocked. He stared at everyone with gigantic bug eyes for a moment or two, then grinned broadly and started laughing hysterically. Everyone else laughed to.
"See, Harry, I told you we'd have you out of that house in no time!" Ron said shaking his hand.
Yeah, you did didn't you!" Harry said smiling still.
"It's so good to see you again Harry!" Hermione said giving him a small hug.
"Yeah, you too!" Harry replied.
Everybody was having a great time. Mrs. Weasley didn't even yell at the twins for showing everybody their new jokes and inventions. Everyone found it extremely funny when Harry managed to catch a snitch (even though it wasn't very hard for him) and screamed like a little girl when it exploded sending confetti everywhere. Even Harry laughed. Finally, it was time for Harry to open his gifts.
They all gathered around Harry who sat on the couch between Ron and Hermione and watched as he opened his gifts. Hermione, of course, bought Harry a book, but one that he would actually read.
"Brilliant!" Harry said as he removed the wrapping off of the book. In shimmering red letters, it read Quidditch from A-Z and in smaller letters underneath, it read Nifty tricks, stunts, methods, techniques and how to do them. All the way from the Altoid's Flip, to Zig-zag-zon.
"Thanks Hermione!" Harry said. She smiled and nodded,
"You're welcome!"
Harry continued un-wrapping all of his presents. Ron had gotten him a wrist watch that did much more than tell time, including telling the forecast for the next three days. As soon as Harry opened it, he ripped his old broken wrist watch that he was just wearing out of habit and put on the new one. Mad-eye and gotten him a small square object with a small indent on one side. When Harry kindly asked him what it was, he replied,
"It's like a lie detector, you place your thumb on the top there, and if you're lying, it glows red, if you're telling the truth, it glows blue!"
"Cool!" Harry said. Fred and George had gotten him a never-ending supply of skiving snack-boxes, canary creams and a variety of their latest inventions. Harry was thoroughly amazed at the gift Tonks got him. It was a model of a Quidditch pitch, with fourteen moving players and a roaring crowd. Seven of the plastic players had red and gold robes on, while the other seven had white. It was amazing, bludgers were flying everywhere as four of the fourteen players smacked them around, a quaffle was being tossed among the players, while one figure on each side circled the three tall hoops. There was even a miniscule snitch flying dramatically this way and that, as one of the players in red and gold (who Harry noticed had a lighting shaped scar on his forehead) squinted his eyes looking in every direction.
"You're probably wondering why I got you that aren't you?" Tonks asked him.
"It's bloody brilliant!" He said and looked again at the small quidditch pitch model. He looked up again at Tonks. She was grinning broadly.
"Open the envelope!" She said. So he did. He read the letter and the others laughed as his face became more excited and shocked the more he read.
"I've been made QUIDDITCH CAPTAIN!?" Tonks nodded vigorously, as others smiled and nodded too.
"Bloody hell! This is bloody brilliant! I can't wait to go back to school!" Harry said with great enthusiasm. He then stared into the box with the flying figures inside.
"You see, that's you," Tonks said pointing to the figure Harry assumed was him.
"That's Ron," she said pointing to a plastic figure with flaming red hair who was circling the hoops.
"And I left the other ones blank. There are directions inside to show you how to make the figures have the appearances of your teammates and opponents. As you can see, the other team had white robes on, so you can change them at will, depending on who you are playing. They give you 5 plays of their own, but you can create your own too." Tonks explained.
"Wow!" Harry whispered. "Thanks!"
"Sure thing Harry!" replied Tonks.
"Well, I know who to put as one of the chasers!" Harry said grinning at Ginny who blushed a bit. "And I can use that book you got me Hermione! And that watch you got me Ron, I can use that one dial on it to tell which way the wind is blowing and what the weather is going to be like for the day of the game! This is going to be brilliant!" Harry exclaimed.
"Oh, yeah, I forgot," Tonks said, "If you know what the weather is going to be like you can change that on the model pitch too."
Again, all Harry could do was whisper "Wow!"
Harry was becoming frowsy and it was quite late. He didn't want to leave though. He was having too much fun. Although he moaned with the others when Mrs. Weasley said, "Ok you four, time for bed." He was thankful all the same. He slowly put his pajamas on and climbed into the bed to the right of Rons.
"Hey Ron?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks."
"Any time."
Harry then drifted off to sleep, dreaming of holding the Quidditch Cup…
