AN: Happy Lunar New Year!
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Ron's birthday was, as usual, celebrated with a party in the Room of Requirement, with people from the Quidditch team, who now knew Ron better, joining the crowd from last year. Fourteen was a big birthday in the wizarding world, a sort of half-adulthood, and even though Harry didn't think the Weasleys really gave many formal dinners or other things like that that would affect Ron's life, it was still an occasion for a big party and interesting gifts. Ron mostly got piles of comics and Chudley Canons memorabilia, which he seemed to be entirely happy with. Harry gave him a displayer with a rare match the Canons have won, and Ron seemed to be in heaven when he saw it, and sorely tempted to just abandon the party and delve into the screen to watch.
In the end, he didn't, and instead showed off his gifts to everyone around him, until Su finally ran out of patience and told him to shut up about it. Then they sat and talked, and somehow, like the year before, they got to talking about dating.
"How are things with you and Cho, anyway?" Katie asked him. "I know that you went together to Hogsmeade, but I haven't heard anything after that."
Harry smiled. "Yeah, we're dating," he muttered. "It's...nice."
Fred wolf-whistled, and Dean said: "Come on, Harry, give us the details!"
Harry frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Well, you know...have you kissed? I mean properly?" Dean sat forward in his seat, impatient for an answer.
Harry blushed. "I don't know what you mean by properly, but yeah, we've kissed," he muttered.
"How was it?" Ron asked curiously.
"Was tongue involved?" Dean demanded.
"That's disgusting," Sophie stated resolutely, as the only girl present. Parvati and Lavender were somewhere else at the moment, exchanging gossip. "Didn't you say you found the idea of girls revolting, Dean?"
"I wouldn't go so far...I don't feel all that eager to try it myself, but can't fault a bloke for being curious!"
"Yeah, Harry, tell us!" Ron insisted.
"How come you haven't swarmed Seamus like that when he was dating Lavender?" Harry deflected.
"Well, you know – Cho is older," Ron pointed out.
"Besides," Dead added, "I have swarmed him."
"He has," Seamus confirmed grimly.
"And?" Harry asked in spite of himself.
"No tongue," Dean replied in a tone of solemn disappointment, Seamus giving him a poisonous look.
Then the expectant faces, including Sophie's, all looked at Harry. He groaned. "Oh, all right. Yes, there's been a little tongue."
"And? How was it?" Ron demanded.
Harry gave a small grimace. "It's pretty weird, to be honest."
Looking at the sea of disappointed faces, he wondered whether there was something wrong with him.
It wasn't that he hated it, but it hadn't really got much more enjoyable either. Cho almost always initiated any kind of physical intimacy between them, but Harry liked holding her hand and giving her a peck on the lips and holding her in his arms. It made him feel all warm inside. As long as they stuck to that, he'd been perfectly happy. But the whole tongue thing...Harry just didn't know.
It was still almost just as weird as the first time, having someone else's tongue in your mouth.
It was strange, too, because he thought about Cho a lot, and a big part of that was about kissing her and...more. And when he thought about it, he liked it just fine. But in reality, it was just strange.
Maybe he just needed to get used to it some more? He'd seen Kiara and Parvati kissing enough to know that not everyone his age felt like that. He didn't think Parvati could have faked that much enthusiasm.
He'd even considered asking her and Lavender for advice – they'd both dated older people, maybe they'd know how to help him – but in the end, the idea of discussing it with girls seemed just too embarrassing.
Now Katie was giving him an intent look, however. "Have you told her you thought it was weird?" She asked.
Harry was horrified at the idea. "No!" He replied immediately.
"Maybe you should," Katie pointed out. "If she doesn't know you don't like it, how is she supposed to know she should change something?"
Harry had never thought about it that way. What was there to change about putting her tongue in Harry's mouth? He didn't think there'd be any way to do it he'd really enjoy. The problem was obviously with him, not with her.
He was saved from having to answer Katie by Dean asking, in a horrified tone: "Wait, so there are different ways to do it? How am I supposed to learn which is the right one? This is all so bloody complicated!"
The older girls gave him a pitying look, as Fred and George roared with laugher. "Ask, Dean," Angelina said firmly, "you can always ask."
Harry didn't think that was such a great advice. If Cho tried asking him, he knew he'd just end up being more embarrassed. Sometimes, he wished he could just skip to being older and understanding how these things were supposed to work.
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Sirius did not forget about his appointment with Alduin, and wrote a fortnight after his trial to ask if it would be convenient if he called on Friday before lunch. Alduin gave his confirmation, and as good as his word, Sirius emerged from the fireplace just as the last people to call that morning – the Smiths, delivering a thank you for the dinner the day before – disappeared in the green flames of Floo.
Alduin led him out of the receiving room and into the drawing room, which Alexandra was just leaving. They had agreed that it would be better to get the introduction out of the way now, and that business was hastily concluded before Alexandra headed upstairs to the nursery.
"So," Sirius said when he sat down, "what did you want? Make sure I wasn't a bad influence on Harry?"
Alduin shrugged. "I trust him to be old enough to make his own decisions, mostly," he said. "I mean, he's almost fourteen, and he's always been strong-headed enough. I just want...look, Harry didn't say anything, but he's not great at lying-"
"Unlike you," Sirius said snidely.
"Yes, unlike me," Alduin agreed easily – did Sirius think that was offensive?, "so I was able to pick up that you wrote him some things about me that disquieted him. Whatever we may think about each other, I'd like to make sure we don't try to make Harry our battleground."
Sirius shrugged. "I gave up trying once I realized you have completely converted him to your side, so you can rest easy now."
Alduin rolled his eyes. "I wasn't doing any converting. I freely admit I would be unhappy if I learned Harry did the sort of things you and James used to go at Hogwarts, but I don't think there's any danger of that."
"No, I gathered as much from his letters. Am I allowed to say that I'd be unhappy if he turned into the sort of duplicitous snitch you were?" Sirius asked archly.
"At any rate, I don't think there's any danger of that either," Alduin replied, avoiding a direct answer. "I told you he never said anything against you."
"That's reassuring to hear. Was there anything else?"
Alduin sighed. "Our animosity is obvious to everyone with half a sense. Harry will certainly notice. I wanted to spare him that."
"I'm not a fucking Ravenclaw," Sirius growled, "let alone that other house which is so good at concealing their emotions until they stab you in the back. I won't play pretend with you."
Alduin closed his eyes. "I might have expected that much."
"Yes, you might have. Unlike you, I'd prefer not to lie to Harry."
Sirius rose and departed, and Alduin was left with the feeling that this meeting had been entirely pointless.
He had no doubt Harry could handle the situation, of course – he had handled worse – but it would still be uncomfortable for him, in all likelihood. And he didn't need any more on his plate. His letters home were now full of wondering about Sirius, studying for the exams, training with Snape and preparing for training Neville, as well as his relationship insecurities. It was quite enough to be dealing with for any thirteen year old boy. Alduin remembered perfectly well how nerve-wracking his first relationship had been, and that was without anything else weighting on him. He was honestly amazed at how resilient Harry was, and did his best to help at least with advice, as much as he was far from the best person to help anyone with relationships.
He just had to hope that Sirius would not make the situation too much worse.
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Harry was looking forward to Easter even more than usual, what with being able to see Edric properly and Wynn's second birthday coming up. He had half-agreed with Cho to meet her over the break, but it was far down the list of priorities in his mind, his little cousins taking a much more prominent place.
He spent some time with her on the train, and was secretly relieved that there were no really private places there, so they just stuck to standing together in the corridor, holding hands as they talked. Cho also introduced him to her friend, Marietta, which caught Harry rather wrong-footed and unsure. He was sure Marietta was perfectly nice, but he wanted to spend time with Cho, not with her friend, and wasn't sure how to express it, and finally just excused himself completely and went to talk to his friends to bid them a proper goodbye before the break.
They talked about their plans, but no one was really going anywhere much for Easter, since they knew they'd need to spend at least some time working on the ridiculous number of essays they were given for the break. When Harry saw the assignment for Runes, he had wanted to quit the class, and even professor Grubbly-Plank was quite demanding. The Gryffindors grumbled about it until the train pulled into the station in London.
Harry forgot about any studying worries, however, when he stepped out onto the platform and saw Alduin impatiently waiting for him. He briskly waved to his friends and took his cousin's arm, and in a moment, they were gone.
Alexandra was waiting with both boys in the receiving room, and Harry wasn't sure which he should dote on first. Wynn rather solved the dilemma for him by running to him, though, and so Harry picked him up and twirled him in the air and then, Wynn still in his arms, went to coo over Edric.
He only reluctantly bid him goodbye to get changed for dinner. There, he spent most of his time watching Wynn intently. "Can I go read him a bedtime story later?" He asked then.
"Of course, Harry. You can read a bedtime story to Edric, too, if you want."
Harry beamed. "Great!" he said. "How has he been doing?"
"Wonderful," Alexandra replied. "He even usually sleeps three hours in a row now, which makes me extremely grateful."
"And how does Wynn get on with his little brother?" Harry wanted to know. He remembered Alduin had been worrying about that a little.
"As well as might be expected," Alduin said. "He gets a little jealous at times, but mostly he's helpful."
"Let's hope it'll last," Alexandra added, smiling at Wynn eating his potatoes.
There was a short silence, then Alduin asked: "What are your plans for the break, Harry? Beside training and studying for the exams?"
Harry groaned. "Yeah, that. And I sort of promised Cho we'd see each other over Easter?"
Alexandra raised her eyebrows. "Sort of?"
"Well, we were very vague," Harry admitted. "I didn't want to spend too much time away from Wynn and Edric."
Alduin thought about it for a moment. "You can go on Easter weekend, then, it would be directly in the middle of the holiday and I do not imagine the Changs celebrate Easter. I assume you'll go to Diagon Alley?"
"I suppose..." Harry said reluctantly. "I mean, I thought I might invite her here?"
Alexandra smiled at that. "You certainly may, but I think Cho might prefer it if you took her somewhere out. You've been together for only a short time now, so she might not be ready to meet the family, so to speak, and Diagon Alley would give you freedom to devote all of your attention only to her."
That was what Harry was afraid of. He had rather hoped than by asking her to the Manor, he would spend some time with her and his little cousins at the same time. Not that he minded spending alone time with her, but...Wynn and Edric!
After he read bedtime stories for the boys, he wrote a letter to Cho, asking her whether she was free over next weekend to meet him in town. Then he went to sleep, looking forward to a day with Edric and Wynn in the morning.
Wynn was even wilder on his toy broom than he had been when Harry last played with him, and as Harry ran after him in the garden the next day, Alduin woefully remarked that the time to get him a grown-up one was not that far off.
"Something very slow, though," he added. "None of your Firebolts and Nimbuses..."
Harry couldn't wait till that actually happened. No matter how slow the broom would be, actually flying with Wynn was bound to be amazing.
For now, he contended with chasing him as Wynn tried to get away on his toy, pretending to be a fierce dragon. When Wynn was tired and taken to sleep, he switched his attention to Edric. This little boy was less fun for now, of course, but Harry still amused himself for a rather long time by waving colourful toys in front of his face as Edric lay on his back.
He could already raise his head when he was lying on his stomach, something Harry remembered Alexandra had been particular about with Wynn.
"How long has he been doing this?" He asked curiously.
"Just for about a week," she replied. "It's a new skill for him – but then, everything is new for now!"
Harry went to bed with a feeling of a day wonderfully spent, and looking forward to another one like that.
At breakfast, however, he got a letter from Cho that soured his mood a little. She seemed upset that he only wanted to meet her in the middle of the break, implying that she thought they'd have more time for each other.
"What's wrong, Harry?" Alduin asked, noticing his expression, and so Harry haltingly explained.
"It's a matter of your priorities," Alduin replied. "I won't fault you if you want to spend more time with your girlfriend."
"But I don't, not really," Harry pointed out. "I mean, I can see her all the time at Hogwarts, and I can't see Wynn and Edric, so...could I maybe ask her to the Manor?"
"Yes, but you best explain your reasons. Communication is the basis of every relationship." Alduin paused. "We also need to arrange another thing. Do you want to meet Sirius during the break?"
"See?" Harry said. "Another thing to take me from Wynn and Edric! Do you think I should?"
"Yes, I certainly think you should, at least once. He is still your godfather."
Harry sighed, already tired at the idea. "I'll make up my mind according to what Cho writes..."