CHAPTER 9

"Hermione," Ginny said, coming into the kitchen. "Is everything set?"

They wanted to give Harry a surprise, but they couldn't do it at night. There's no way they could set up a surprise party with Harry in the house. And, sending him out for a bit is out of the question too. Instead, they decided to set it in the morning.

When Harry went to bed, half the Order went to work and set up signs. Mrs. Weasley woke up early to start breakfast. Hermione and Ginny helped her. Mr. Weasley, the twins, Charlie and Bill were in the living room, trying their best to "not get in the way" of Mrs. Weasley.

Hermione sent Ginny to make sure Ron was doing his job keeping Harry in the room.

Lupin, Tonks, and Moody just arrived with their gifts.

After Mrs. Weasley added the finishing touches on the birthday cake, the men in the living room entered the kitchen. Ginny went out of the kitchen again to get Ron and Harry.

After what seems like forever, everyone in the kitchen heard footsteps and held their breaths. No one wanted to ruin the surprise for Harry.

"SURPRISE," everyone yelled at the messy-black-haired teenager. Harry jumped back, but then smiled when he realized it wasn't a Death Eater. He looked around the kitchen and saw the signs and the large cake on the table.

"Happy birthday," Hermione said, giving Harry a big hug.

Everyone else in the room said "Harry Birthday" to Harry. Hermione stood at the door of the kitchen where Ron was still standing and watched Harry's face light up. It has been a long time since Hermione has seen Harry this happy.

"Good morning," Ron whispered to Hermione.

She wasn't sure if she should ignore him or talk to him again. Hermione was really upset when Ron accused her of being jealous. As if she would ever be jealous of Loony Luna. She was absolutely mad, and if Ron is going to pay attention to her, he's just as mad.

"Still not talking to me," Ron asked when Hermione didn't answer right away. "Alright, just thought I try."

Ron walked over to Harry and Hermione didn't want to ruin Harry's birthday with a row with Ron. That's what is going to happen if her and Ron talked about Luna. Hermione didn't feel like she was up for it today anyway.

"Ron told me you two met Luna in Diagon Alley," Ginny said, coming from behind.

"Yes, we did," Hermione said, toneless.

"So, what happened?"

"What do you mean? They just talked."

"Yeah, but then Ron said you pulled him away and got upset."

"Now isn't the best time to talk about this. Come on, let's eat."

Hermione and Ginny joined the rest of the party at the table.

After eating a hearty breakfast, compliments to Mrs. Weasley, Harry opened his gifts.

He received more polishing liquid for his broom kit and a handbook of brooms from Tonks. Mrs. Weasley got him another jumper. The twins gave him a set of fireworks.

"You can't set the fireworks in here," Fred said. "So, we'll just explain to you what they do."

"When you light them," George started to explain. "The sparks will form into shapes that will tell the magnificent story of The Boy Who Lived."

"We figured what better way to celebrate the birth of you than by creating a life story of you." Fred said.

"We plan on selling them today, and only today," George said. "In honor of you, Harry! We'll give you the profits of course. You can do whatever you like with them."

Harry smiled at the twins. Hermione knew Harry never liked the attention, but she felt Harry was appreciative today.

Moody gave Harry two pieces of parchment.

"It's a two-way parchment," Moody explained when he saw Harry's confused look on his face. "When you write on this parchment, those words will appear on the other parchment. And, if someone has the other parchment, you two can write back and forth immediately."

Moody demonstrated by writing on one parchment, and almost immediately, the words on the parchment Moody was writing on disappeared and reappeared on the other piece of parchment.

Harry thanked Moody for the gift. Next, he opened Ron's and Hermione's gift and seem to enjoyed them. Everyone have given their gift to Harry, except for Lupin.

"Well, Harry," Lupin said. "I didn't exactly buy you a gift. It was something I considered since you arrived here at Grimmauld."

"What is it," Harry asked eagerly.

"Lessons," Lupin said with a smile.

"Lessons," Harry said confused. "Lessons for what?"

"Dark Arts Lessons. I think you should prepare yourself for things that are out there in this world. I though at about what you said to me last month. And with Dumbledore's and the ministry's approval, I can teach you things you haven't touched at Hogwarts. I know you had that club last year, butUmbridgereally set you back."

Hermione thought that was brilliant. This is exactly what Harry needs right now. He needs to learn to protect himself from all the dark magic that is out to get him. And Hermione can't think of a better tutor than Lupin himself. He really was the best Dark Art teacher she had at the five years at Hogwarts.

"So you're really going to teach me," Harry asked, looking even happier than being surprised for his birthday. "When do we start?"

"This weekend," Lupin said smiling. Everyone cheered.

"No! No! No," Mrs. Weasley said, putting a damper into the atmosphere. "You can't possibly let Harry take lessons. I refuse to allow it! He's too young to do that kind of magic!"

"But, mum," Ron protested.

"No!" Mrs. Weasley said firmly. "That is what the Order is for, to protect Harry. So there would be no reason for Harry to learn any of that."

"The Order was form to stop You-Know-Who and his followers," Ron argued. "Teaching Harry to protect himself should be part of their duties. You-Know-Who is always after Harry, and for some reason, Harry is always the only one to face him. If the Order was formed to stop him, then it only make sense that they help Harry."

For the first time since Hermione met Mrs. Weasley, she was speechless. She didn't argue back or continue to disagree. She stood there and said nothing. She has also never seen Ron argued back with his mother, and win. The room was silent because they too never seen such a sight.

"Okay," Mrs. Weasley finally said. "But you have to do it before school starts. I don't want these 'extra' lessons to interfere with your schoolwork. Do you understand me?" Mrs. Weasley looked at Harry.

Harry nodded and the whole room cheered again.

While everyone was still surrounding Harry, Hermione pulled Ron outside of the kitchen. Hermione figured she should be apologizing to Ron, because it really was a brilliant move that Ron was able to convince his mother to allow Harry to take Dark Arts lesson. Maybe she did overreact a bit about Luna. She felt she was being a hypocrite because she was annoyed at Ron's jealousy over Victor Krum, but she was doing the same thing over Luna Lovegood. Hermione decided now would be a good time to tell Ron how she really feels about him. He might not be ready to admit it, but she is.

But before she could, there was a knock at the door. Both Ron and her stared at the door, unsure if they should answer it. Just then, Moody came out of the kitchen, glared at Ron and Hermione, then at the door. After another knock, Moody walked over to the door and answered it. On the other side was Dumbledore.

"Dumbledore," Moody said, letting the wizard in. "Didn't think you would come today."

"Yes, well, today is a special day. This isn't something that can be expressed in just an owl."

Moody closed the door and disappeared into the kitchen while Dumbledore stood in the foyer with Ron and Hermione.

"Having a good holiday," Dumbledore asked smiling at them.

"Yes, sir," they both said.

"Well, then, I guess it's a shame I have to hand you this." He took out two white envelopes with a Hogwarts seal on it. "These are the O.W.L.s results. We received the results two weeks ago and started owling them out to students last week. But I felt, since we will be meeting, I would give them to you personally. So, I would like to say in advance, I'm sorry if these results ruin the rest of your summer. But I'm sure there is nothing to worry about."

Hermione couldn't believe she forgot about the O.W.L.s results. She would never ever forget something like this. But, for some reason she did. She slowly took a shaky hand out to grab her envelope and so did Ron.

Then, everyone came out of the kitchen and was happy and surprise to see Dumbledore.

"Would you come and sit with us," Mrs. Weasley asked.

"No, thank you, Molly," Dumbledore said. "I just need to speak with Harry, alone."

Harry stepped away from the crowd. He was no longer wearing the smile he had when Lupin offered Dark Arts lessons. Dumbledore led him to the study room across the hall. After Dumbledore closed the door, Mrs. Weasley noticed the two white envelopes in Ron's and Hermione's hands.

"Are those your O.W.L.s results," Mrs. Weasley asked excitedly. They both nodded. "Well, open them up! How did you do?"

Hermione was a bit more hesitant than Ron to open her results, so she allowed Ron to go first. He opened the envelope, took out the results and read through it. After a few moments, Ron handed the results to his mother without any emotions to tell how well he did.

"Well done, Ron," Mrs. Weasley exclaimed. She handed the envelope to Mr. Weasley who is now by her side trying to read the results too.

"Six O.W.L.s, Ron," Mr. Weasley said. "Very well done."

"You received the same amount of O.W.L.s as the both of us combined," Fred said with disgust. "First you're prefect, and now you got six O.W.L.s!"

"I don't know where we went wrong with you," George said, shaking his head in shame.

"Don't listen to them," Hermione said. "That's really good."

"Well, what did you get," Ron asked when he saw her envelope still in her hand.

Hermione slowly opened her enveloped and with a deep breath, she read her results.

"Twelve O.W.L.s," she whispered. She couldn't believe. She did it. She passed all of her exams and received 'O's in all but Astronomy. But that wasn't fair, she didn't finish in time because everyone was watching Professor McGonagall being attacked.

"Twelve O.W.L.s," Ron said louder, taking the paper out of her hands to read for himself.

"That's great," Mrs. Weasley said, hugging Hermione. "Bill received twelve O.W.L.s, too."

"Yes, but that was ages ago," Bill said. "I'm sure the exams are a lot harder. But I'm sure I can still get twelve if I take it again." Bill smiled at Hermione.

"I have to tell my parents," Hermione said.

"You can have Pig," Ron said. "I'm sure they will be really happy and proud to hear."

"Thanks," Hermione said.

Hermione went up the stairs to write to her parents. Nothing can really ruin her happiness right now.