DISCLAIMER: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Chapter 14

Letters and Birthdays

Mrs. Weasley was even more confused when several owls flew in and delivered messages to the children – Ron, Hermione and Ginny. They were in Harry's tidy scratch and seemed to be legitimately from him. She grabbed Ron's out of his hand before he even finished reading it to his annoyed protests.

Dear Ron,

I can't tell you where I am at, but I wanted you to know that I am doing better. I had a bit of a blow up when I was with my Aunt and Remus came and helped me. I still need to figure a few things out. I wanted to say thank you for coming with me to the Ministry and trying to help Sirius. It means a lot to me that you all stuck by me. I hope you're doing better.

I don't know when I'll be able to write again and I know you can't write to me here, but I hope to see you soon.

Harry

P.S. – Tell your Mom and everyone else I'm doing better.


Molly grabbed the other letters from the girls, as well, and looked them over. Again she recognized, Harry's scratch.

Dear Hermione,

I can't tell you where I am at, but I wanted you to know that I am doing better. I had a bit of a blow up when I was with my Aunt and Remus came and helped me. I still need to figure a few things out. I wanted to say thank you for coming with me to the Ministry and trying to help Sirius. It means a lot to me that you all stuck by me, even when you didn't agree with me. I hope you know that I only did what I thought was right and I hope you're doing better.

I don't know when I'll be able to write again and I know you can't write to me here, but I hope to see you soon.

Love,

Harry

P.S. – Do you think you could help Luna charm her things back at Hogwarts? Apparently, her dorm mates keep stealing them.


Dear Ginny,

I don't know when I'll be able to write again, so I just wanted to say thank you for coming to the ministry with me and I hope you ankle is doing better. It meant a lot to me that you stood by me. Thank you.

Harry


Molly felt like someone had handed her all of the puzzle pieces but she just couldn't fit them together. In the letters, he mentioned Ginny's ankle, and carefully avoided the other's more serious injuries but he had mentioned Hermione was right. They sounded so typical of Harry. They also said he was with Remus, confirming his letter from a few days ago. But how come no one knew where they were; how come Albus had the order scouring the globe looking for them? Surely if the order was having such a difficult time finding them, even with correspondence, albeit minor, Death Eaters would find it near impossible to find them.

Molly was about to snatch the letters and head straight to Dumbledore. Then remembering his reaction and the power he had radiated last time, she thought better of it. She would wait until he exited the office of his own accord, hopefully in a better mood. When he was, she would casually mention that Harry had sent his friends some letters.


Harry awoke to a bleary rainbow spectacle leading down the hall. As he put on his glasses, he noted they were all packages in brightly colored wrapping. He searched out Remus, who was in the kitchen cooking breakfast, to figure out what the man was up to now.

"Happy Birthday, Harry."

Harry was stunned. His mind had been such a jumble of late, he had completely forgotten about his birthday. He looked around and gawked. "Surely not all of these are for me? There's about a hundred presents here."

Remus laughed heartily. "Not quite that many, but I think I may have gotten a bit carried away."

"A bit?"

"Hey, you only turn 16 once." Remus replied and then spoke in softer tones. "I knew with us being here, you wouldn't get anything from your friends. Plus, I never really had the money to buy things like this before, Harry. I wanted too. Please accept them."

Harry mocked a harsh tone, "Well, okay, but only if you help open them."

Remus and Harry both laughed gleefully and started ripping open the packages. Harry was amazed there were all types of clothing, muggle and magical, an assortment of quidditch gear items, books, and a pair of dragon hide boots. When everything was opened they sat back to enjoy the day, and the somewhat lopsided chocolate cake Remus had made. Molly Weasley he was not.

After a while, Moony smirked knowingly, "Cub."

"Yeah"

"You know I found out something interesting yesterday, underage magic cannot be traced in an unplottable location."

Harry was stunned; he looked at Remus disbelievingly.

Remus nodded. "It's true."

Harry took in a deep breath and whispered "Lumos". His wand lit up. Harry waited eyeing everywhere for the Ministry owl he was sure was coming.

Remus chuckled. "Um, Cub, you do know that I charmed us so we couldn't be reached by owl even if they sent one of those nasty letters, don't you?"

Harry reddened. "Oh, Yeah."

"Happy Birthday, Harry."

Remus sat quietly enjoying the day and seeing the rare bit of happiness that lit Harry's face, as he sifted through his gifts. Remus did his best to ignore the growing mound of thoughts that were threatening to overwhelm him. Tomorrow, he thought. Tomorrow he would contact Mikhail. Tomorrow he hoped to at least begin to help Harry on his path. Tomorrow he would worry about what the future holds. But today Harry was 16, a big day in any young man's life. But for Harry with the number of times he had faced death, it was monumental. Tomorrow was another day; today, it was time to celebrate.