Author's Note: Okay... so this chapter starts off in a bit different way than the others. I am not going to make this fic into a diary-fic, but just for a while in this chapter. Don't worry. It's just to get some variation in the writing.

Kow it All – Yeah… I realized I hadn't (told that Tonks was a metamorphagus (sp? JKR should have come up with an easier word LoL), but I think I took care of it in this chapter.

Pussinboots – Eh, no there weren't a boggart there. D

Tania25 – Hm hm hm. She didn't really say the "duh" very out loud, it was more something that she muttered. I think. Oh, and fyi, Man Hunt is like, a game you play – you team up and then you run around in the house with flashlights… basically.

Thank you also ElizabethMorgana, Harry-Potter-fan01, SeverusSnape'sLove, gboyary

Chapter 31 – Harry's Birthday

(A/N I counted and counted and decided that it must be in 1996, but I'm still not sure.)

July 31, 1996 6:34 AM

Don't ask why I'm up so early. I know it's barely the crack of dawn, but I couldn't sleep. Ginny snores – irritating. So now I'm sitting in the window in the landing.

Harry's birthday today. I took care of the present problem, Ginny and I bought a present together, it's a box from the Weasley twins shop containing different kinds of pastilles you can eat to change your appearance, for example I could have my hair black, my nose big and even my boobs bigger (eh, that could almost be necessary seeing as how they are almost non-existing and for Christ's sake, I'm 15!) However, I think he'll like it. We split the cost, which was necessary as neither I nor Ginny have got much money right now.

I'd need my future inheritance. It would be nice. You see, it's quite a lot of money. I'd definitively be able to live on that until I could earn my own money. I wonder if I'll ever get my hands on it? Especially now when Father is out of Azkaban. I wonder if he arrived at Malfoy Manor. I wonder if I'm even included in the family any more?

Not that I'm not doing fine here, no, because I'm really having a good time. Everyone is being very nice. Ginny keeps making hints about me and Harry, of course. I wish she could drop it, really. It's kind of awkward. However, everyone else is being nice, and guess what I have learned? I said I thought Tonks was cool. But you know what? Not only is she an awesome, cool person but she's also like a Metamorphagus! (But I have no idea how to spell that.) Is that cool or what? Think if I was a-

Crap. Someone's coming. Must hide diary NOW.

It turned out to be Harry. To make things worse, I didn't manage to hide my diary but I dropped it on the floor. So I gracefully (or maybe not so gracefully) dived down from where I had been sitting, onto the floor, picked it up and stuck it into my robes. Harry looked at me in a strange way.

"Er, Harry", I said, "hi. Good morning."

"Hi", he said hesitatingly.

"What are you doing up in the crack of dawn?" I asked him cheerfully.

"Nothing, really", he said, "I was hungry so I thought I could have a sandwich. You?"

"Oh", I said, "I was just… well, I couldn't sleep, so I read a little."

"In the book you are currently keeping inside your robes?"

I blushed furiously, but thankfully it couldn't be seen as it was fairly dark.

"I just put it there…", I said, "… so that I wouldn't forget it here later."

Nice save, Tamara, I thought sarcastically. Now he thinks I'm reading porn or something.

"Right-o."

"Okay so I wasn't reading", I admitted. "I was just writing a little… in a book."

He shrugged. "I saw that, actually."

"You did."

"Yes."

"Oh."

Awfully embarrassing silence.

"I'm going to get my sandwich now", Harry said.

"You do that", I said. "I'm going back to bed. Happy birthday, Harry."

And with that, I swept past him back upstairs and into the bedroom which I shared with Ginny and Hermione.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Later that day, we all held a surprise party for Harry. Ginny, Hermione and I had done most of the work, while Ron had distracted Harry's attention so that he wouldn't suspect anything. Mrs. Weasley had cooked and also made an amazing birthday cake. It was chocolate. Oh, I loved chocolate. Obviously, Harry did too (I assumed she wouldn't have made him a chocolate birthday cake if he didn't like chocolate).

The rest of this Order thing (which I still wasn't very sure about) also arrived, and everyone brought presents. I don't remember every single thing he got, but among the unforgettable ones was a tuxedo made of snake skin, which he received from the Weasley twins (I wonder when he's ever going to use that). He also got quite a couple of books, candy and a sweater from Mrs. Weasley (I knew he used to get one every Christmas).

Harry was happier than I had seen him for a very long while, and I almost forgot that I had embarrassed myself in such a horrible way earlier. Harry seemed to have forgotten about it at least, so I decided not to be bothered by it any more.

Music filled the house, it source appeared to be a muggle stereo of Hermione's. It was kind of cool. I'm not that used to muggle technology, and especially not that thing they call 'electricity'. I guess I would have been if I had taken Muggle Studies, but as I didn't, I wasn't. But I believe Hermione had quite a job finding what she called 'an electronic outlet', which was needed. Somehow she pulled it off with something she called 'bettries' (I'm not sure really what she said but something on b and with t's in it). Apparently, you can store this electricity thing in these bettries (or was it battries? Beterys?) things.

Anyway, it worked.

The party was a success. I'm not sure if it could have been better even with the fire whiskey the twins had wanted to bring. I had never tested fire whiskey and would gladly have done so (yes, after everything I'd heard about it), but Mrs. Weasley absolutely refused… and I can understand her. However, my point was that I'm not sure it would have been more fun even if we all had been all cracked up by the fire whiskey.

The best thing, though, had nothing to do with the party, really. It just happened to happen in the same time. To make a long story short, we were brought some wonderful, awesome, splendid, wicked, etc, news concerning our upcoming school year.

We (with that, I mean Harry, Ginny, the twins, Ron, Hermione and I) were standing in a heap, when Tonks made her way through the people to us, smiling in a very smug way.

"What's up with you, Tonks?" Ginny asked. "Looking very… smug."

"I'm just happy", she said secretly.

"Why?" Hermione asked.

Tonks grinned even wider. "I won't have to see Amelie Heyworth again for I don't know how long", she said cheerily.

"Who's that?" I asked.

"Amelie is Tonks's boss at the Ministry", Harry said, "isn't she?"

Tonks nodded. "Because I'm resigning! Toodiloo!"

"So what're you gonna do?" Ron asked curiously.

"Order stuff", Tonks said and grinned her smug grin again. "Confidential Order stuff. But I can tell you... I might be bumping into you guys this year."

Everyone just stared at her. She had dropped such an obvious clue, and none of us got it. Such idiots we are, ha ha.

"DADA?" Hermione asked.

Tonks nodded. "Ladies and gentlemen… right now, you are looking at the new Defence against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

This is great, I thought. It couldn't have been better. I had wondered who was going to replace Dumbledore Jr, but I had thought about Moody or someone. That would have been good. Even great, comparing to the other DADA professors we had had. This was even better.

It's going to be a good year.

Or so I thought…