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 5
The Party
It's funny how such an important day can completely slip the mind of a person, but with his visions of Neville and the return of Dumbledore Harry had forgotten about his own birthday. He was now sixteen years old, although with the amount of things that he had to deal with at such a young age he felt more like thirty. After his meeting with Dumbledore Harry had gone downstairs to a barrage of questions. Everyone wanted to know if Dumbledore had explained where he had been. Harry relayed that Dumbledore told him that Neville was fine and that the Death Eaters never had him. Thankfully, before he went into any more details about their conversation Mrs. Weasley, realizing Harry's apprehension for these questions, stepped in and ordered everyone to bed as it was already about 2:30 in the morning. Everyone went to their respective rooms and Harry drifted off to sleep peacefully.
Harry awoke suddenly to a strange and alarming sound ripping through the room. His first instinct was to grab his wand and pounce out of the bed. But then he had to chuckle when he realized that the sound of a chainsaw tearing through his room was merely Ron's snoring.
"Shut it." Harry said as he tossed his pillow at Ron. But Ron did not wake up and so Harry took matters into his own hands. "Silencio." He said pointing his wand in Ron's direction. Immediately the sound was vanquished and Harry was left in an almost eerie silence. It was actually kind of nice, he reasoned, to wake up in the middle of the night because of snoring rather than a nightmare. But he recognized that he was not going to be able to fall asleep again quickly so Harry got up, put on his robe and went down the stairs to have a cup of tea.
As Harry approached the door he saw that the light in the kitchen was already on. He swung the door opened and saw Ginny sitting at the kitchen table alone having a cup of tea herself. She really had become quite striking Harry thought to himself. She was no longer the little girl that once stuck her elbow in a butter dish at the sight of him. Her red hair flowed to the middle of her back and she resembled a woman much more than a girl. She smiled at him as he walked through the door, which made his stomach turn in a way that took him by surprise.
"What are you doing up?" Harry said as he returned the smile.
"Hermione snores." She responded as she got up to grab Harry a cup and began filling it with tea. "Why are you up?" She said with a suddenly alarming tone in her voice. "You didn't have another nightmare did you?" Harry could see that she was terribly concerned and so he calmed her fears immediately.
"No, no nothing like that." He said as he patted her hand briefly with his. "Ron snores too." As if on cue, they both looked at each other and burst out laughing.
"They really are meant for each other aren't they?" Ginny said.
"So you can see it too." Harry added. It had begun to occur to him over the course of the last few years that Ron and Hermione had something beyond friendship between them. Although neither of them would openly admit to it.
"It's painfully obvious isn't it?" Ginny continued. "Ron is to daft to tell her how he feels and I think Hermione is too shy, but did you see him put his arm around her yesterday?"
"Yea" he responded. "Maybe there is hope for them after all."
They continued sitting there and talking for a while. Harry told her about how her father had put his Uncle Vernon in his place when he had come to pick him up. Ginny told Harry about how she was nervous about having to take her OWL's this year and Harry told her that she shouldn't worry because they would all help her. They discussed who would be the new Defense of the Dark Arts teacher and who would be made the new Head boy and girl. The conversation never stopped and Harry thought to himself that he had never enjoyed talking to anyone as much in his life.
"We need to get to bed." Ginny interrupted as Harry was telling her the story about Dudley and the Ton Tongue Toffee's that she had heard about a million times but never got tired of. "The sun is coming up and you have a big day ahead of you." Harry smiled thinking that he was finally going to be able to spend his birthday with the people that he cared about. Ginny rose from her seat, gathered the cups and flung them into the sink.
"Your right." Harry said as he saw light creeping underneath the kitchen door. He moved towards the door with Ginny following closely behind and put his hand on it to open it when he quickly stopped and Ginny ran right into him and stumbled to the floor.
"Sorry." Harry said as he reached his hand down to hers to help her up from the ground. Ginny was blushing violently and Harry realized that he had failed to let go of her hand after he had helped her up. "Uh, sorry." He said again as he quickly dropped her hand and turned a shade of red even deeper than her hair. "I just wanted to say thank you. For ah, you know believing in me."
"Your welcome." She said smiling up at him. They didn't say another word as they made their way up the stairs to their rooms. They each opened their respective doors and gave each other a final glance before retiring inside. It was now almost 6 in the morning and Harry knew that he would probably be woken up early for a special birthday breakfast made by Mrs. Weasley. But, he didn't care. He would enjoy the few hours of sleep that he would get with visions of one person in his mind, and it wasn't Voldemort.
"Wake up Harry, come on wake up, its your birthday." Ron yelled as he continued to shake Harry until he broke out of his sleep.
"Alright, alright I'm up." Harry responded drearily. It had been a nice dream that he was having and he felt like cursing Ron for waking him. "What time is it?" Said Harry while rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
"It's about 9:30." Ron replied. "Mum is going to start breakfast as soon as the twins arrive so we should hurry." Ron was putting on a robe to wear down to breakfast and he threw Harry one to put on as well.
"Slow down Ron, I didn't get hardly any sleep last night." Harry said. "It's going to take me a moment to wake up."
"Why didn't you get any sleep?" Ron said in the same concerned tone as Ginny the previous night. "Did you have another nightmare?"
"Yea." Harry replied. "There was a lawnmower shaped like your head chasing my around the house." Ron had a puzzled look on his face that made Harry realize that he didn't get his joke.
"A what-mower?" Ron asked.
"Oh never mind, I'm fine." Harry said with a smile. Ron really hadn't understood what Harry was talking about but conceded the fact that he was all right.
"Is everyone decent?" Hermione yelled from outside the door as she knocked.
"Yea, come on in." Harry responded. She opened the door and Harry could have sworn he saw a brief smile exchange between his two best friends but he wasn't completely sure.
"Happy Birthday Harry." Hermione said as she grabbed Harry into a hug.
"Thanks" He replied. "I can't believe I actually get to have a proper birthday without the Dursleys."
"Well, it won't be completely without them, after all they did send you a present." Hermione said with a grin.
"Oh yea, what did they send me an old dirty sock." Harry laughed as he remembered some of the memorable presents he had received from his relatives.
"No, it was a box of matches. Honestly, what did they think you would do with a box of matches?" Hermione said.
"They probably hoped I would light myself on fire." Harry replied.
"Well mate, no need to worry about them today." Ron added. "Mum and Dad have invited a lot of people over, it should be a great party."
"I can't wait." Harry said happily knowing that nothing would be able to spoil this birthday.
"So Harry." Hermione said trying to slyly change the subject. "What did go on with Dumbledore last night?"
"Nothing really more than I told you last night." Harry began. "He told me that Neville was fine and that I really needed to work hard on my Occlumency so that this would not happen again."
"I told you Harry." Hermione began to ramble. "Dumbledore and the other professors know what is right we must listen to wh-."
"I know Hermione." Harry interrupted. "Of course your right and from now on we must not keep anything from each other or from Dumbledore." They both shook their head and Hermione seemed satisfied that Harry had learned his lesson. "I also wanted to thank you two and apologize. I shouldn't have put you guys through that last night, it was stupid. And there aren't many people who would stand by there friends the way that you three did."
"Don't worry about it mate." Ron replied. "I think we're all getting a little used to danger by now." They all looked at each other and smiled and Harry realized how truly lucky he was to have the two of them as friends.
"So ah where is Ginny." Harry said trying to act as nonchalant as possible. He could feel his cheeks begin to burn just from saying her name but he was hoping that they didn't notice. Especially Ron.
"She's still asleep I expect." Hermione said harshly. "I had an awful time trying to wake her up, she kept muttering something about not getting any sleep last night and when I continued to try and wake her she pulled out her wand and zapped a couple of tusks on my head. Luckily I had a book of charms next to my bed that had the counter curse so I was able to get rid of them right away."
"She's getting to good with those hexes." Ron said while shaking his head. "It's not good to be frightened of your baby sister." Ron was right Harry thought. Ginny was taking after the twins in that regard. You sure as hell didn't want to be on her bad side.
All of a sudden a scream came radiating from downstairs all the way up to their room. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHHHHH, FRED, GEORGE, HOW COULD YOU SCARE YOUR MOTHER LIKE THAT.
"Well, it seems as though the twins have arrived." Ron said with a smile and they all began to run for the stairs so they could see what had happened. Apparently the high-pitched scream had woken Ginny from her slumber because she was now following them down the stairs. When they got to the kitchen they saw Mrs. Weasley up on top of the table and Fred and George running around the kitchen chasing after rats. It seems that Fred and George had snuck in and transfigured all of Mrs. Weasleys cooking utensils into rats because they were now chasing them around trying to change them back. Harry and Ron began to help Fred and George round them up as Hermione and Ginny joined Mrs. Weasley on the table and they were able to get them all back to normal in no time.
"Thanks Harry." Fred said. "Just our little way of saying Happy Birthday." George added. Well there was one thing you could say about the twins Harry thought, they know how to make an entrance.
The rest of breakfast went off without a hitch and Mrs. Weasley informed them that everyone would be coming around 3:00 p.m. for Harry's birthday party. So they all got cleaned up and went to the front room to relax before any of the guests arrived. Harry and Ron sat down for a game of wizard's chess while Hermione was messing around with Ginny's hair trying to put it into some sort of braid. The twins were sitting on a couch on the other side of the room apparently going over some sales numbers of their newly opened joke shop.
"So, how's business" Harry addressed the twins as Ron was taking an unusually long time to make his next move.
"Great Harry, and were sure business will pick up even more when Hogwarts is back in session." George said with a smile. "We've actually moved out of the Burrow and into our own apartment in Diagon Alley." Fred chimed in.
"That's great." Harry said thankful that the money he won from the Triwizard Tournament had been used for a good cause.
"Check" Ron said as he finally made his move. Harry could see from looking at the board that he was dead. He made a quick move to get his king out of check. But Ron had anticipated this move and quickly hollered "Check Mate" as fired his knight at Harry's king.
"You really had me thinking that time." Ron said.
"Yea, well I'll beat you some day." Harry responded although he didn't really mean it. It would take some kind of miracle for him to be able to beat Ron. Just then the clock began to chime signaling that it was indeed 3:00 and people would soon be arriving for Harry's Party. The door opened and closed a significant amount of time although Harry had not seen who had come in because Mrs. Weasley had instructed her children to keep Harry in the front room until all the guests had arrived and the kitchen was properly decorated for the party. At about 3:30 Mrs. Weasley yelled for them to bring Harry into the kitchen.
"Alright were ready." She said. Harry was very excited, as he had never had so many people making a fuss over him before. They opened up the door and everyone began to yell.
"Happy Birthday!" Said a chorus of people in unison. Harry saw that there were more people there than he ever would have dreamed. Professor McGonagall and Hagrid had come along with Remus Lupin, Mad-Eyed Moody and Tonks. Also Seamus, Dean, and Colin and Dennis Creevy were there along with Luna Lovegood. Harry also noticed that Bill and Charlie Weasley had come but Percy was absent. Harry had not asked Ron what was going on between Percy and his family. He thought that if Ron had wanted to talk about then he would and he would not pry for the time being.
They all talked, and many people were coming up to Harry and asking how he was doing including Mad-Eyed Moody who was grilling Harry about how his uncle had treated him over the summer. All in all it was a great birthday. Everyone sang "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" and he received a lot of great presents. Hermione had given him an enchanted calendar that would yell at him in her voice when an important date was coming up. Ron, Fred, and George had all gone in and gotten him a new set of Quidditch pads and gloves in Gryffindor colors. Professor McGonagall gave him a book on Transfiguration along with a note attached telling him that he was reinstated onto the house Quidditch team. Colin and Dennis gave him a scrapbook of pictures that were taken of the previous year. Hagrid gave him a book of magical creatures that he said would help him prepare for his Newts and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley gave Harry a new jumper that Mrs. Weasley no doubt made herself. He also received a holster for his wand that would attach to his belt from Lupin and a full set of Quidditch balls from Bill and Charlie. Seamus and Dean got him a book called Hogwarts Greatest Quidditch Players and Luna gave him a years subscription to the Quibbler. But his favorite present had been from Ginny. She had gotten him something called a dream catcher. It was something that American Indians made. It was made of three wooden circles that were attached together and had feathers and chimes attached to it. Ginny told him that it was an ancient form of magic that would rid him of bad dreams if he attached it to his bed. He thanked her and everyone else and was just about ready to dig into his cake when Professor McGonagall came up to him.
"You have one more present Harry." She said with a very serious tone. "Professor Dumbledore is expecting you upstairs."
They were all under strict orders from Madam Pomfrey not to disturb Dumbledore so they had all kept their distance from his room so that he could get some rest. When he approached the room, he heard the sound of a harp playing a soft soothing tune.
"Ah yes Harry come in." Dumbledore said as Harry entered the room. "Surely you didn't think that I would forget your birthday."
"Well no of course not." Harry responded. "I just thought that in your condition you wouldn't be up for having any visitors."
"Nonsense." Dumbledore said. "I am an old wizard Harry, but I am still up for more challenges than many people give me credit for." Harry thought that this was probably true. You would certainly not be wise to underestimate Albus Dumbledore. "Now." Dumbledore said. "On with your present. Please hand me that satchel over there on the chair. Harry reached over and picked up the satchel and noticed that there was something fairly heavy inside. He handed it to Dumbledore and sat down in a chair right next to his bed.
Dumbledore opened it up and pulled out a long spear with a tip that was made of solid gold. "Happy Birthday Harry." He said as he handed it to him. Harry held it in his hands and didn't know quite what to say. Sensing this Dumbledore leaned over and whispered, "As I told you before, we have a lot to talk about."
Authors note: I'm taking a little break for the holiday so Chapter 6 probably wont be up until at least Monday. The chapters are going to be getting a little longer from now on as the story starts to progress. I look forward to your reviews. I hope everyone has a happy holiday. In the next Chapter the Trio gets the results of their OWL's, Dumbledore finally tells Harry everything, and they get ready to go back to Hogwarts.
Chapter 5
The Party
It's funny how such an important day can completely slip the mind of a person, but with his visions of Neville and the return of Dumbledore Harry had forgotten about his own birthday. He was now sixteen years old, although with the amount of things that he had to deal with at such a young age he felt more like thirty. After his meeting with Dumbledore Harry had gone downstairs to a barrage of questions. Everyone wanted to know if Dumbledore had explained where he had been. Harry relayed that Dumbledore told him that Neville was fine and that the Death Eaters never had him. Thankfully, before he went into any more details about their conversation Mrs. Weasley, realizing Harry's apprehension for these questions, stepped in and ordered everyone to bed as it was already about 2:30 in the morning. Everyone went to their respective rooms and Harry drifted off to sleep peacefully.
Harry awoke suddenly to a strange and alarming sound ripping through the room. His first instinct was to grab his wand and pounce out of the bed. But then he had to chuckle when he realized that the sound of a chainsaw tearing through his room was merely Ron's snoring.
"Shut it." Harry said as he tossed his pillow at Ron. But Ron did not wake up and so Harry took matters into his own hands. "Silencio." He said pointing his wand in Ron's direction. Immediately the sound was vanquished and Harry was left in an almost eerie silence. It was actually kind of nice, he reasoned, to wake up in the middle of the night because of snoring rather than a nightmare. But he recognized that he was not going to be able to fall asleep again quickly so Harry got up, put on his robe and went down the stairs to have a cup of tea.
As Harry approached the door he saw that the light in the kitchen was already on. He swung the door opened and saw Ginny sitting at the kitchen table alone having a cup of tea herself. She really had become quite striking Harry thought to himself. She was no longer the little girl that once stuck her elbow in a butter dish at the sight of him. Her red hair flowed to the middle of her back and she resembled a woman much more than a girl. She smiled at him as he walked through the door, which made his stomach turn in a way that took him by surprise.
"What are you doing up?" Harry said as he returned the smile.
"Hermione snores." She responded as she got up to grab Harry a cup and began filling it with tea. "Why are you up?" She said with a suddenly alarming tone in her voice. "You didn't have another nightmare did you?" Harry could see that she was terribly concerned and so he calmed her fears immediately.
"No, no nothing like that." He said as he patted her hand briefly with his. "Ron snores too." As if on cue, they both looked at each other and burst out laughing.
"They really are meant for each other aren't they?" Ginny said.
"So you can see it too." Harry added. It had begun to occur to him over the course of the last few years that Ron and Hermione had something beyond friendship between them. Although neither of them would openly admit to it.
"It's painfully obvious isn't it?" Ginny continued. "Ron is to daft to tell her how he feels and I think Hermione is too shy, but did you see him put his arm around her yesterday?"
"Yea" he responded. "Maybe there is hope for them after all."
They continued sitting there and talking for a while. Harry told her about how her father had put his Uncle Vernon in his place when he had come to pick him up. Ginny told Harry about how she was nervous about having to take her OWL's this year and Harry told her that she shouldn't worry because they would all help her. They discussed who would be the new Defense of the Dark Arts teacher and who would be made the new Head boy and girl. The conversation never stopped and Harry thought to himself that he had never enjoyed talking to anyone as much in his life.
"We need to get to bed." Ginny interrupted as Harry was telling her the story about Dudley and the Ton Tongue Toffee's that she had heard about a million times but never got tired of. "The sun is coming up and you have a big day ahead of you." Harry smiled thinking that he was finally going to be able to spend his birthday with the people that he cared about. Ginny rose from her seat, gathered the cups and flung them into the sink.
"Your right." Harry said as he saw light creeping underneath the kitchen door. He moved towards the door with Ginny following closely behind and put his hand on it to open it when he quickly stopped and Ginny ran right into him and stumbled to the floor.
"Sorry." Harry said as he reached his hand down to hers to help her up from the ground. Ginny was blushing violently and Harry realized that he had failed to let go of her hand after he had helped her up. "Uh, sorry." He said again as he quickly dropped her hand and turned a shade of red even deeper than her hair. "I just wanted to say thank you. For ah, you know believing in me."
"Your welcome." She said smiling up at him. They didn't say another word as they made their way up the stairs to their rooms. They each opened their respective doors and gave each other a final glance before retiring inside. It was now almost 6 in the morning and Harry knew that he would probably be woken up early for a special birthday breakfast made by Mrs. Weasley. But, he didn't care. He would enjoy the few hours of sleep that he would get with visions of one person in his mind, and it wasn't Voldemort.
"Wake up Harry, come on wake up, its your birthday." Ron yelled as he continued to shake Harry until he broke out of his sleep.
"Alright, alright I'm up." Harry responded drearily. It had been a nice dream that he was having and he felt like cursing Ron for waking him. "What time is it?" Said Harry while rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
"It's about 9:30." Ron replied. "Mum is going to start breakfast as soon as the twins arrive so we should hurry." Ron was putting on a robe to wear down to breakfast and he threw Harry one to put on as well.
"Slow down Ron, I didn't get hardly any sleep last night." Harry said. "It's going to take me a moment to wake up."
"Why didn't you get any sleep?" Ron said in the same concerned tone as Ginny the previous night. "Did you have another nightmare?"
"Yea." Harry replied. "There was a lawnmower shaped like your head chasing my around the house." Ron had a puzzled look on his face that made Harry realize that he didn't get his joke.
"A what-mower?" Ron asked.
"Oh never mind, I'm fine." Harry said with a smile. Ron really hadn't understood what Harry was talking about but conceded the fact that he was all right.
"Is everyone decent?" Hermione yelled from outside the door as she knocked.
"Yea, come on in." Harry responded. She opened the door and Harry could have sworn he saw a brief smile exchange between his two best friends but he wasn't completely sure.
"Happy Birthday Harry." Hermione said as she grabbed Harry into a hug.
"Thanks" He replied. "I can't believe I actually get to have a proper birthday without the Dursleys."
"Well, it won't be completely without them, after all they did send you a present." Hermione said with a grin.
"Oh yea, what did they send me an old dirty sock." Harry laughed as he remembered some of the memorable presents he had received from his relatives.
"No, it was a box of matches. Honestly, what did they think you would do with a box of matches?" Hermione said.
"They probably hoped I would light myself on fire." Harry replied.
"Well mate, no need to worry about them today." Ron added. "Mum and Dad have invited a lot of people over, it should be a great party."
"I can't wait." Harry said happily knowing that nothing would be able to spoil this birthday.
"So Harry." Hermione said trying to slyly change the subject. "What did go on with Dumbledore last night?"
"Nothing really more than I told you last night." Harry began. "He told me that Neville was fine and that I really needed to work hard on my Occlumency so that this would not happen again."
"I told you Harry." Hermione began to ramble. "Dumbledore and the other professors know what is right we must listen to wh-."
"I know Hermione." Harry interrupted. "Of course your right and from now on we must not keep anything from each other or from Dumbledore." They both shook their head and Hermione seemed satisfied that Harry had learned his lesson. "I also wanted to thank you two and apologize. I shouldn't have put you guys through that last night, it was stupid. And there aren't many people who would stand by there friends the way that you three did."
"Don't worry about it mate." Ron replied. "I think we're all getting a little used to danger by now." They all looked at each other and smiled and Harry realized how truly lucky he was to have the two of them as friends.
"So ah where is Ginny." Harry said trying to act as nonchalant as possible. He could feel his cheeks begin to burn just from saying her name but he was hoping that they didn't notice. Especially Ron.
"She's still asleep I expect." Hermione said harshly. "I had an awful time trying to wake her up, she kept muttering something about not getting any sleep last night and when I continued to try and wake her she pulled out her wand and zapped a couple of tusks on my head. Luckily I had a book of charms next to my bed that had the counter curse so I was able to get rid of them right away."
"She's getting to good with those hexes." Ron said while shaking his head. "It's not good to be frightened of your baby sister." Ron was right Harry thought. Ginny was taking after the twins in that regard. You sure as hell didn't want to be on her bad side.
All of a sudden a scream came radiating from downstairs all the way up to their room. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHHHHH, FRED, GEORGE, HOW COULD YOU SCARE YOUR MOTHER LIKE THAT.
"Well, it seems as though the twins have arrived." Ron said with a smile and they all began to run for the stairs so they could see what had happened. Apparently the high-pitched scream had woken Ginny from her slumber because she was now following them down the stairs. When they got to the kitchen they saw Mrs. Weasley up on top of the table and Fred and George running around the kitchen chasing after rats. It seems that Fred and George had snuck in and transfigured all of Mrs. Weasleys cooking utensils into rats because they were now chasing them around trying to change them back. Harry and Ron began to help Fred and George round them up as Hermione and Ginny joined Mrs. Weasley on the table and they were able to get them all back to normal in no time.
"Thanks Harry." Fred said. "Just our little way of saying Happy Birthday." George added. Well there was one thing you could say about the twins Harry thought, they know how to make an entrance.
The rest of breakfast went off without a hitch and Mrs. Weasley informed them that everyone would be coming around 3:00 p.m. for Harry's birthday party. So they all got cleaned up and went to the front room to relax before any of the guests arrived. Harry and Ron sat down for a game of wizard's chess while Hermione was messing around with Ginny's hair trying to put it into some sort of braid. The twins were sitting on a couch on the other side of the room apparently going over some sales numbers of their newly opened joke shop.
"So, how's business" Harry addressed the twins as Ron was taking an unusually long time to make his next move.
"Great Harry, and were sure business will pick up even more when Hogwarts is back in session." George said with a smile. "We've actually moved out of the Burrow and into our own apartment in Diagon Alley." Fred chimed in.
"That's great." Harry said thankful that the money he won from the Triwizard Tournament had been used for a good cause.
"Check" Ron said as he finally made his move. Harry could see from looking at the board that he was dead. He made a quick move to get his king out of check. But Ron had anticipated this move and quickly hollered "Check Mate" as fired his knight at Harry's king.
"You really had me thinking that time." Ron said.
"Yea, well I'll beat you some day." Harry responded although he didn't really mean it. It would take some kind of miracle for him to be able to beat Ron. Just then the clock began to chime signaling that it was indeed 3:00 and people would soon be arriving for Harry's Party. The door opened and closed a significant amount of time although Harry had not seen who had come in because Mrs. Weasley had instructed her children to keep Harry in the front room until all the guests had arrived and the kitchen was properly decorated for the party. At about 3:30 Mrs. Weasley yelled for them to bring Harry into the kitchen.
"Alright were ready." She said. Harry was very excited, as he had never had so many people making a fuss over him before. They opened up the door and everyone began to yell.
"Happy Birthday!" Said a chorus of people in unison. Harry saw that there were more people there than he ever would have dreamed. Professor McGonagall and Hagrid had come along with Remus Lupin, Mad-Eyed Moody and Tonks. Also Seamus, Dean, and Colin and Dennis Creevy were there along with Luna Lovegood. Harry also noticed that Bill and Charlie Weasley had come but Percy was absent. Harry had not asked Ron what was going on between Percy and his family. He thought that if Ron had wanted to talk about then he would and he would not pry for the time being.
They all talked, and many people were coming up to Harry and asking how he was doing including Mad-Eyed Moody who was grilling Harry about how his uncle had treated him over the summer. All in all it was a great birthday. Everyone sang "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" and he received a lot of great presents. Hermione had given him an enchanted calendar that would yell at him in her voice when an important date was coming up. Ron, Fred, and George had all gone in and gotten him a new set of Quidditch pads and gloves in Gryffindor colors. Professor McGonagall gave him a book on Transfiguration along with a note attached telling him that he was reinstated onto the house Quidditch team. Colin and Dennis gave him a scrapbook of pictures that were taken of the previous year. Hagrid gave him a book of magical creatures that he said would help him prepare for his Newts and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley gave Harry a new jumper that Mrs. Weasley no doubt made herself. He also received a holster for his wand that would attach to his belt from Lupin and a full set of Quidditch balls from Bill and Charlie. Seamus and Dean got him a book called Hogwarts Greatest Quidditch Players and Luna gave him a years subscription to the Quibbler. But his favorite present had been from Ginny. She had gotten him something called a dream catcher. It was something that American Indians made. It was made of three wooden circles that were attached together and had feathers and chimes attached to it. Ginny told him that it was an ancient form of magic that would rid him of bad dreams if he attached it to his bed. He thanked her and everyone else and was just about ready to dig into his cake when Professor McGonagall came up to him.
"You have one more present Harry." She said with a very serious tone. "Professor Dumbledore is expecting you upstairs."
They were all under strict orders from Madam Pomfrey not to disturb Dumbledore so they had all kept their distance from his room so that he could get some rest. When he approached the room, he heard the sound of a harp playing a soft soothing tune.
"Ah yes Harry come in." Dumbledore said as Harry entered the room. "Surely you didn't think that I would forget your birthday."
"Well no of course not." Harry responded. "I just thought that in your condition you wouldn't be up for having any visitors."
"Nonsense." Dumbledore said. "I am an old wizard Harry, but I am still up for more challenges than many people give me credit for." Harry thought that this was probably true. You would certainly not be wise to underestimate Albus Dumbledore. "Now." Dumbledore said. "On with your present. Please hand me that satchel over there on the chair. Harry reached over and picked up the satchel and noticed that there was something fairly heavy inside. He handed it to Dumbledore and sat down in a chair right next to his bed.
Dumbledore opened it up and pulled out a long spear with a tip that was made of solid gold. "Happy Birthday Harry." He said as he handed it to him. Harry held it in his hands and didn't know quite what to say. Sensing this Dumbledore leaned over and whispered, "As I told you before, we have a lot to talk about."
Authors note: I'm taking a little break for the holiday so Chapter 6 probably wont be up until at least Monday. The chapters are going to be getting a little longer from now on as the story starts to progress. I look forward to your reviews. I hope everyone has a happy holiday. In the next Chapter the Trio gets the results of their OWL's, Dumbledore finally tells Harry everything, and they get ready to go back to Hogwarts.