Birthday II
Dudley Dursley stomped tiredly down the stairs the next morning, one heavy footfall after another. Having woken up much earlier than accustomed to, he had to grip the railing to keep from toppling over with his weakened sense of balance. He turned to enter the kitchen where, undoubtedly, his mother would be when a sharp knocking was heard at the door. Too sleepy to care about whom would call at that hour, he trudged over to the door and wrenched it open.
"Hi there!" a bubbly voice cried in a pitch labeled ungodly for that time in the morning. The owner of it belonged to a young woman with bright, blue and purple spiked hair. Suddenly awake, Dudley slammed the door in her face, recognizing her from earlier in the summer when they picked up his freak of a cousin.
"Mum!" he cried, rushing to the kitchen. "It's one of them!"
"Well don't leave them out on the doorstep where anyone can see them. Let them in!" She hissed, walking into the hallway in a nervous sort of manner. "And go wake your cousin. I want them out of here as soon as possible."
Dudley gulped and swung open the door before dashing up the stairs as fast as he could with his hands around his bottom. Tonks stepped into the house uncertainly, disturbed by the boy's behavior.
"Won't you come into the kitchen," Petunia forced out with a tight smile. "He should be down in a few minutes."
Tonks grimaced at her syrupy tone and followed the woman through the disgustingly neat hallway.
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Harry woke to an annoying pounding on his door. He groaned and buried his face in his pillow, trying to block it out. While trying to turn away he ended up rolling over into another, smaller body. Harry's eyes creaked open and looked down at Shiva, who was waking up as well. The knocking insisted.
"Wss that noiz..." she mumbled cuddling into him and rubbing her body against his. Harry reddened and shook her slightly. It wouldn't do to have one of his relatives finding him with a naked girl in his bed.
"Shiva—you've got to hide! Hurry up, before my uncle finds you!"
Shiva opened her eyes and squinted at the door that was now rattling at the hinges. They widened as she understood and she quickly attempted to pull herself out of the sheets when the door was kicked open. Shiva squeaked and fell off the bed sideways, on the side opposite from the door. Dudley's mouth hung open in shock as he looked from his naked cousin sitting in his bed to the obviously feminine leg sticking in the air from behind it. His shock melted into a smirk.
"Well, well Potter. I didn't know you had it in you."
"Dudley," Harry growled, pulling the covers away from Shiva and back onto him. He pointed to the door. "Get. Out."
Dudley, still smirking, backed out of the door innocently, "Just thought you'd like to know one of those freaks are here for you."
"Oh shit," Harry moaned, slapping a hand to his forehead after his cousin left. Shiva popped up from behind the bed, now in a bra and panties.
"I should go now," she said giggling. She quickly moved around the room, pulling on the rest of her clothes.
"Oh, you thought that was funny?" he asked, but he smiled as well.
"Yup. Oh yeah, Happy birthday, Harry."
She leaned in and kissed him soundly on the lips. One of the first things Shiva insisted they establish was a definition, and both agreed to keeping their "relationship" as platonic as possible—especially since Harry knew Shiva and Tai had a thing for each other. Therefore, they were just friends-with-benefits.
Large benefits.
Harry sighed, sliding out of his bed and pulling on a pair of boxers. He ran out of the room for one of the fastest showers of his life. When he returned Shiva was gone, leaving the window open. In her place, however, was Inuyasha who comically held a hand over his nose.
"Jesus Christ Potter," he moaned, backing away from the bed.
Harry ignored him and began pulling on a comfortable pair of faded jeans and a fitting black tee shirt with a yellow Converse logo on the front.
"I hope you could tell—"
"—She's in heat. I know," Harry interrupted as he reached for his glasses. He gazed in the direction of the kitchen using his x-ray setting to find Tonks sitting awkwardly at the table with his aunt.
"Why the hell is she here?" he mumbled.
"They're taking you to H.Q. for a birthday party," Inuyasha said, sticking his head out the window and taking a dramatic gulp of air.
"Will you knock it off?" Harry said sharply to him as he strapped a dagger on the inside of his boot.
"Your entire room reeks of sex. I wouldn't be surprised if your family noticed," Inuyasha complained.
Harry laughed, thinking of Dudley, "I think it's a bit too late for that. I'll just leave the window open while I'm gone."
Inuyasha grinned, "Well you better hurry down, I can hear your cousin tattling on you. I don't think your aunt is very happy."
Harry's eyes widened risibly.
"That little shit," he hissed before racing out of his room and down the stairs, Inuyasha's antagonizing laughter following him all the way.
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"I'm telling you mum—it was a girl! And she fell out of his bed. They were both naked!" Dudley explained to his mother what he saw with the most naive voice he could muster. On the inside, he was laughing.
Tonks sat at the table with a hand over her mouth, shocked. This did not sound like something the Harry Potter she met would do. Harry was a sweet kid, a little reserved and unsure of himself. She watched as the scowl on Petunia's face deepened with every word out of her son's mouth.
"Dudley!" a voice growled from the doorway, the tone threatening bodily harm. Knowing it was Harry, Tonks turned to face him. Her jaw dropped.
The young man in front of her could hardly be recognizable from the boy she saw mowing the lawn a month ago. He looked as if he had actually been fed this year, now standing a good head taller than her at about five foot nine. His body had noticeably filled out as well. His t-shirt stretched lightly across his chest and broader shoulders at the slightest movement and his jeans fit nicely on his slim waist—a large improvement from his last wardrobe.
His hair had grown yet still held it's character messy look, styled in an outward shag-like cut with longer bangs pushed appealingly to one side of his face. The glasses were cool too. The thinner, rectangular frames made his face look more angular and the yellow tinted color was very modish. What shocked her most were his piercings, which, thanks to his hair, she never would have known to look for had she not already spoke to Kingsley. There was a small, silver hoop in each ear lobe and on his upper left ear was a longer, thicker earring.
Dudley ceased his tattling and looked sheepishly at his cousin, though neither Harry nor Tonks missed the hint of satisfaction in his eyes.
"Boy!" his aunt screeched, forgetting about the witch in her kitchen. "Are you bringing girls into your bed behind our backs?"
Harry stared at her.
"Would you have rather watched?" His cheek earned him a warning glare from his open-mouthed aunt. Tonks snorted, drawing Harry's attention to her.
"Hey Tonks. Come to take me away?" he grinned.
"Just for today," she replied easily. She was still trying to adjust to the new Harry Potter in front of her.
"Oh yeah? What for?" he asked, even though he already knew the answer.
"We've got a birthday party for you!" Tonks cried, enthused. She suddenly looked horrified and clamped her hands over her mouth. Harry smirked in his victory.
"Can you pretend I didn't say that?" she asked meekly.
Harry lowered his voice and smiled boldly, "I dunno...it'll cost you."
Tonks' mouth opened once, and then twice, before she managed to gasp out, "Potter, I know you aren't hitting on me..."
"Oh, please," Harry said as if the very notion was ridiculous. Tonks shut her mouth and glared at him.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Take it how you will, Nympha—"
Harry found a cedar wand pointed at his Adam's apple.
"Do it," Tonks challenged. "Finish that sentence."
Harry, amused, cocked his head to the side and calmly tipped the wand away from his person with one finger.
"You're so dramatic," he criticized, laughingly. Tonks let the jab roll right off her, a smile of her own coming to her face.
"From what I hear, you can take dramatic to a whole new level," she countered, lowering her wand.
"What you hear are lies."
"Will you please leave our house," Petunia spoke up in a whimpering voice. Her eyes were fixated on Tonks' wand.
"Yeah, fine," Harry waved her off before nodded to Tonks. "So how are we going? It's too light out for brooms."
"I know. We're using a portkey."
Harry grimaced. He was officially scarred when it came to portkeys.
"Alright, let's get this over with," he sighed placing his hands on the offered ballet slipper. No doubt the doing of Dumbledore's warped sense of humor.
Right before he felt the unpleasantly familiar tug behind his navel he blurted out, "—dora!"
Then the kitchen of number four Privet Drive disappeared from his vision.
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"Fred! George! Come help me set the table!" Molly Weasley yelled at her twins as she put the finishing touches on a very large cake. "Harry will be here any minute!"
"Oh, I hope he's alright," Hermione said worriedly to her new boyfriend as they snuck out of the kitchen to avoid being put to work. The confession that began their relationship wasn't the one she had imagined as a little girl—Ron blurting out his feelings for her in the midst of one of their arguments—but she had been too happy at the time to care.
"I'm sure he's fine, Herm," Ron placated his girlfriend. "Kingsley said he's doing really well, anyway. I mean, he didn't even write to us all summer! The least he could have done was respond to our letters."
Ron tone suggested that said he was a little more than upset at his best friend. Hermione continued to fret.
"Oh, come on Ron, Harry's had it really hard lately. I mean, he just lost Sirius and now he has to stay with those horrid relatives, isolated. Don't you think he needs some time for him to grieve?"
"True, but I think Ron may have a point," Ginny piped up from behind them. "Harry needs to stop stewing about everything and start realizing he has friends willing to listen. It's been almost two months since...the ministry. We should have heard something by now. Isolation can't be good for anyone."
"Ginny—," Hermione started to admonish but was cut off by the screams of Mrs. Black.
"FILTHY HALF-BLOOD, GET AWAY FROM ME! HOW DARE YOU! NO! NO STOP—"
The trio ran into the main hallway where Mrs. Black was near tears screaming. Drawn on her face was a black mustache curled over her lips along with a scratchy goatee on her chin. The space between her eyebrows was filled in and the outline of a crude beret tipped to the side on her head. At the new audience she hastily pulled her own curtains closed in embarrassment.
A figure stepped away from the portrait, capping a permanent black marker. He turned around to reveal a very satisfied and barely recognizable Harry Potter.
"H-Harry?" Ron stuttered, staring at his friend. "What happened to you, mate?"
"My thoughts exactly," Tonks said dryly as she took back her conjured marker from the vandal and left to announce Harry's return to the rest of the family in the kitchen.
"Harry...what did you do to yourself?" Hermione asked in a frenzied voice as she approached for her biannual hug-of-death. Ginny stood behind her silently with her head tilted to the side.
Harry stared down at Hermione feeling slightly insulted and amused at the same time.
"You look good too Hermione, filling out nicely. Thanks."
Hermione reddened and pulled away, whether it was due to embarrassment or anger, he didn't know.
"I like the hair," Ginny said finally. "And did you get new glasses?" Ron watched with something akin to horror as his little sister drank in his best friend.
"The earrings Harry! Why so many?" Hermione continued in a pained voice. Harry felt relief in knowing that she didn't know about the other one or the tattoos, and made a vow to keep his mouth from opening too wide that evening.
"Why didn't you write to us? What about our letters to you?" Ron jumped in, with a mixture of aggression and relief. At the very least his best friend was all right.
Harry appeared genially confused at the question.
"I only got one letter this summer—" And that was as far Harry got before Mrs. Weasley burst into the room to greet him.
"Oh Harry, dear, it's so good to see you!" She pulled him into a tight hug before letting him go.
"Look at you! You've gotten so tall and so handsome! Is that an earring? What are those other ones? Oh please don't tell me you're taking after Bill! You're so good looking with out them! You look like a ruffian now..." Mrs. Weasley clucked. Harry couldn't help but grin as the only mother figure in his life fussed over him.
"Mum! Leave him alone," George called from the kitchen. "It gives him sex appeal."
Tonks, who had followed Mrs. Weasley out, started coughing loudly. Harry shot her a warning look to shut her up.
"George, you better have had that table set," Mrs. Weasly rebuked. "And don't use that language"
"Ginny! Stop ogling Harry and help us in the kitchen," Fred yelled at her
Ginny shrieked, "I am not ogling anyone. I'll have you know I have a very loving boyfriend which is more than I could say for you two!"
Her yells disappeared into the kitchen as she slammed the door.
"Well, come on now, Harry," Mrs. Weasley began herding him into the kitchen along with the others. "We have a wonderful meal prepared for your birthday."
"Great, I'm starving," Harry vocalized, causing the woman to smile.
Upon entering the kitchen Harry spotted many Order members including Mad-eye, Remus, Kingsley, Tonks, and the rest of the Weasley clan. Remus immediately jumped up to greet him.
"Harry," Remus cried, pulling the slightly shocked demon hunter into a hug. Harry hesitantly hugged back, still not used to such affection from people. He noted, with some pride, that he was no longer a head shorter than the man. Remus pulled back and seemed to be noticing the same thing.
"What have you been doing?" Remus asked with a ghost of a smile but Harry could tell his heart was only half in it. There were dark bags under his eyes and his face looked gaunter than ever. The grey hairs had almost doubled since he last saw the werewolf. Judging by the slightly shocked looks he had been receiving it seemed the rest of the company half-expected for Harry to look the same.
"Fine. But how are you doing?" Harry asked quietly but Remus just shook his head and put on a strong smile.
"I'm fine. I'm just glad you're all right. I was worried about you," Remus said, leading him to the table. Mrs. Weasley was now setting down dishes of delicious smelling food all around the table.
"Hey Harry, like the look," Bill grinned as Harry sat between him and Hermione. Harry smiled back; he knew Bill wouldn't give him any shit about his moment of perforated weakness. He sensed random individuals at the table shooting him short glances and for once he didn't mind being the center of attention. This was something he did himself, not something everyone speculated he did. He'll take credit where it's due.
"Hello Harry, I see you've been busy this summer..."
Harry turned in his chair to spot the last man he wanted to see walk through the kitchen door.
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I am so, so, so, so sorry for taking so long. I was away in Europe on a vacation (which kicked ASS!) so I didn't get to update this for a couple weeks. Fear not—I am back.
As for what happened to Kagome, etc... That will be revealed in later chapters. Someday I might write an Inu Yasha prequel thingythat explains everything that led up to the present. But for now I have my hands full.
Thanks for the reviews lovelies!
