Baby Steps
The three wizards entered their hotel room to find Minerva and Nestor having tea in front of the television.
Minerva jumped up, "Did you find them?"
Alastor simply replied, "Yup," and went straight to the kitchen cupboard and pulled out five tall glasses.
Severus went to his bag and reached into it up to his shoulder and pulled out two bottles of fire whiskey. "Come, sit. We have a lot to tell you."
Nestor and Minerva sat around the dining table in the hotel room as Tristan sat down looking like he had run a marathon in his head. Severus poured each of them a full glass of fire whiskey and sat down himself.
Alastor looked at the other two, "Who wants to start?"
What followed was a complete recounting of the events which was constantly interrupted by both the ones that were there and the ones who weren't. A lot of fire whiskey was drunk until the bottles were nearly empty and everyone looked exhausted and ready to slump over.
"Oh and something I didn't mention before," added Alastor at the end. "That big snake that they were sitting on; my magic eye couldn't see it. I definitely would have warned us if there was a forty-foot snake above our heads."
Tristan picked up his glass and swirled the remaining contents in the light from the window. "You know what's been bugging me the most? Everything there was magic. Sure it was shocking, but I can kinda figure out how all of it happened. The thing that bothers me the most was Harry's shirt."
Minerva looked over, "You didn't say what it was, just that they had shirts and shorts, which is peculiar if they can't conjure anything."
"Harry's shirt was from the 1982 Muggle World Cup," said Tristan. "Italy played against West Germany in the finals and West Germany lost 3-1. Harry's shirt said they were the champions. That's what's bugging me."
What followed was a drunken conversation about parallel dimensions that postulated everything from Harry or Lyra being from a parallel world to that they had access to a closet with a tear in reality that provided them such clothes where all the championship sports games had the opposite outcome as their home dimension.
The next morning they all ate their breakfast and washed it down with hangover potions.
Afterward, the five of them prepared to take the portkey back to the island.
Alastor warned Minerva and Nestor, "Last time we were greeted by close to a hundred snakes buried in the sand around us. Do not panic if we get a similar reception."
Placing their hands on the portkey, they were off.
They landed on the beach and the banana leaves were gone. Only a single, small demiguise eating a banana was waiting for them. He jumped up at their arrival.
It turned out to be the same one as before they realized when he walked up to them and held out his hand, then in a throaty growl said, "Swear."
Being told about a talking demiguise was one thing, hearing it speak was another, shocking Minerva and Nestor. When they recovered, they both took the oath. The demiguise then led them back towards the village they were near before.
This time, as they walked through the fields, they saw cobras slithering around the perimeter and the silver demiguises tending to the crops. Near the area where they had been sitting before, there were racks of fish getting the scales removed from them and drying out in boxes of salt.
Minerva mused out loud, "I thought demiguises were vegetarians?"
This time, they entered into the circle of trees that Harry and Lyra had come out of. In the center of the clearing was a piece of bamboo stuck into the ground. It wasn't growing there, the ground had been dug up and the stick was put into the ground at an unknown depth. It was as tall as the surrounding trees, and at the top, they could see lines of rope tied to nearby trees that they assumed were keeping the large pole from falling over.
The trees around the clearing were Balete trees, which had wide-open spaces on the tops above the main trunks. Many of them had houses with plastic roofs built in the spaces. Some of the trees had hammocks in them. Around the base of the trees were shelving units made of various things with different types of boxes on the shelves.
As they were observing everything, every so often, a demiguise would run into the clearing and touch the large bamboo pole. Its eyes would glow for a second and then they'd scamper away.
The one that brought them in spoke again in his throaty growl, "Sit," before running off.
They all conjured something to sit on, and having time, they made sure to get something comfortable. A few minutes later, Harry and Lyra arrived. Minerva stared at the boy who she saw before her.
"Harry, I met you twice when you were a baby," she said. "You have grown up and I see a lot of your parents in you."
"I wouldn't know," said Harry wistfully. "I have never seen pictures of them, I don't even know their names. My aunt and uncle told me how they died, but I doubt it was true."
"What they told you was a lie," Severus said with venom in his voice. "Their names were James Potter and Lily Evans. You will never have to see your aunt and uncle again if you do not want to."
Harry nodded. "So you want us to return with you? We are happy where we are now."
Minerva stood up, "You were told about the school. There is much you could learn, we can show you a few of the things you might learn there."
Lyra spoke, "We already know some things, magic of the earth, magic of the animals, magic to hide, and magic to protect."
Tristan spoke, "maybe you can show us what you know and we can show you what we know. I'm curious how you did the magic with the writing in the blood."
"That involves the death of a snake, would you be ok seeing that? It's kind of gross," Lyra said, sticking out her tongue, there was a small cut that was in the process of healing along the side of it.
Severus was interested, "I harvest animal parts for potions regularly, I have no issues, even if the others do."
Harry got up and walked to one of the boxes on the shelves and returned with it while Lyra brought over two bowls. When he opened it, it was filled with an assortment of snakes, though all of them had two heads.
Alastor fixed his magic eye on them, "They don't appear to be magical, it seems to be just a birth defect."
Harry whispered in parseltongue, which had a chilling effect on Minerva who had seen Voldemort speak it before. The snakes stilled in the box and he picked one out, closing the lid. Harry whispered again and the snake stuck its heads out straight as Harry pulled out a knife and slashed their throats right under the heads. He held the snakes upside down as the blood from each neck poured into the two bowls. Snape was nodding a bit at the process.
Harry then pulled out two plastic spoons and placed them both in the bowls and stirred three circles to the right in each simultaneously, then balanced the spoons on the bowls. Lyra went off to do something away from them. Harry opened the mouths of the dead snake and pulled out their tongues, then simultaneously dropped them into the blood. Lyra came back with two small planks of wood and two paintbrushes. Once again, Harry simultaneously stirred the bowls three times around, this time to the left. Harry then opened a pouch on his belt and pulled out a black powder which he added to each bowl.
Then came the magic. Harry picked up each bowl and tapped it with the horn on the tip of his staff. Each bowl floated six inches above the ground. Though they didn't hover as much as they were stuck in the air where he left them like they were resting on an invisible table. Then Harry reached for Lyra's head, pulling out two of the small red feathers in her braid, and planting them with the quill into the ground. Lyra raised her staff and tapped the ground causing the feathers to burst into a small flame below the bowls. Harry stirred the bowls simultaneously three more times to the right.
He turned to their guests who were watching. "I'll need to do a few more stirs in a minute, but do any of you have any questions?"
Severus was impressed, "I want to see if I'm following. I assume in the end, the two bowls can be used for communication. Yesterday, you had one bowl on your end which you were speaking into to control the snakes; and you will treat the boards with some of the mixtures and then somehow write on one end which will allow it to be read on the other."
Harry stirred the mixtures again three times, "That's all correct."
Nestor asked, "What was the black powder you added?"
"It was ash from wood that was burnt over the flame of a hoohoo feather, like these here," replied Lyra
"Like Japan's mascot, that hoohoo? I thought they were only found in sanctuaries," Tristan responded.
Alastor chuckled, "I'm pretty sure they don't have quidditch out here. But yes and yes to what you said, though obviously there are quite a few here if they are using their feathers for a demonstration of magic."
Harry stirred the mixtures three more times one last time before nodding to Lyra who tapped her staff and the flame went out. The tips were barely singed and Harry handed them back to her to stick into her hair.
Harry held one bowl to his mouth and whispered, "Hello."
The other bowl simultaneously rippled and also spoke, "Hello," with a slight distortion.
Severus smiled, "I am very impressed." Tristan and Minerva were shocked. The amount of praise that Severus gave sincerely to a student each year could be counted on one hand. "How long does this last? What is the range?"
"It will last one whole cycle of the moon, as for the range, we haven't found a limit here on the island. Take one with you when you leave today." Minerva frowned slightly as they had just implied that they wouldn't be leaving today.
Lyra looked at them expectantly, "OK, your turn."
Minerva stood up, smiled, and turned into a cat. Nestor smiled for a moment before turning into a nine-foot crocodile with a narrow snout. The others hadn't known about Nestor so they jumped a bit in surprise. What followed was two minutes of a cat playing tag with a crocodile. The children were suitably entertained.
When they turned back, Lyra asked, "Was that from a ritual involving hallucinogenic plants, a shelled moth, and a lightning storm?"
Most people knew the process of the animagus transformation though few were willing to go through the process. For children abandoned on an island to know was very strange.
"How did you know that?" asked Minerva, "Have the two of you done it?"
"No, The Giver says we are too young. I want to be a bird," she said with a pout.
"Who is The Giver?" asked Alastor
"He was with us yesterday, the one with the black hair," said Harry.
"I believe his people are called Duwende, somewhat similar to dwarves or goblins, but also completely separate. They were thought to be extinct," Severus informed them
Harry thought for a moment. "He might be the last. He is probably close to 300 years old, he mentioned that he knew four generations of Charlie's ancestors. He is the only one on the island."
Lyra jumped to the front again, "Show us something else, we already knew about the animals."
Minerva reached into her bag and took out her shrunken broom, shaking it to bring it to full size. She sat on it as it rose into the sky. She did a few figure-eights before landing back on the ground. Severus could see that Harry's eyes were calculating the possibilities of such a device, Lyra's eyes merely expressed the desire to fly.
The broom held the children's interest for a while as they asked all sorts of questions about the creation, the uses, how long they lasted, and finally quidditch. They didn't have many games on the island, though the most popular was to surprise each other to make them vanish. With demiguises, this was incredibly hard because they could see the immediate future. Harry and Lyra could not do that. The idea of new games intrigued them.
"Could the Hidden fly on them too?" seeing their questioning looks, she pointed above them.
In the trees above there were at least two dozen demiguises watching them. A few of them vanished when the group looked up.
"I would imagine they couldn't," said Severus. "Just like only the two of you have made staves, brooms have to interact with a witch or wizard's magic to work."
"They do have a staff," said Harry, and pointed to the large bamboo pole in the center of the clearing. "They just have limited use for it, so they built one large one for everyone."
"What do they do with it?" asked Nestor.
"They seem to have two magical abilities, invisibility and seeing the immediate future," said Harry. "They don't need to improve their invisibility, so the use of the staff just increases how far in the future they can see. Though they can't see past any of our interactions with future events. Most of the village uses it to make the best use of their time when working to avoid any mistakes for the day. Charlie can see the farthest into the future at will, so he uses it to predict long-term events; storms, and visitors. That's how we knew you were coming."
"Have there been any visitors before us?" asked Alastor.
"We had people come a year ago, they came to take the Hidden," Harry said with a stern face. "We did not know they meant any harm and welcomed them when they arrived. When they attacked, the protectors of the island dealt with them."
"Are you the protectors of the island?" Minerva asked hesitantly.
"No, there are three, the Usurper, the Hoohoo, and the creature of the north side that we do not have a name for. The Giver has a name for him, but it sounds like grunting to us. My staff comes from his horns. The Usurper you met yesterday, the large snake."
"Do you control the Usurper?" asked Alastor with hesitation and an edge to his voice. He was fingering his wand as he spoke, though his hand had never left it to begin with.
"Certainly not," said Harry with finality. "From what he's told me, magical snakes cannot be controlled, only bargained with. Lesser snakes have to be kept in line through commands, punishments, and rewards. Younger snakes I can command to do pretty much anything, as you saw with the two-headed ones. Most of the snakes live on the north side of the island as they fear the Usurper, it took a whole moon cycle to gather the ones we used for your arrival. We keep ten hooded snakes to guard the fields from smaller animals here."
"I want to see more magic," demanded Lyra. "We just told you a whole lot."
The rest of the day had various exchanges of magic with the children growing more interested in the prospect of the magical school.
After a few weeks of regular visits, Minerva thought that they might have a chance of getting them to come back to England.
Harry and Lyra felt that they might want to go as well, and told the assembled group at their next meeting, but had reservations.
"We would like to come with you to learn magic," said Harry with hesitation, speaking for both of them. "But we also don't want to leave our home. What if more people come to take the Hidden? We were able to bring together the protectors to get rid of them, and without us, it might have been too late before The Giver could have done the same. Also, while we would live at the school during the year, we want to come back here when it's not in session. Before anything, we would need to be assured of the safety of the Hidden."
Nestor came to their aid for the first part. "I work with the local government. We could establish the island as a sanctuary and put up protections that keep others from coming for the Hidden. You have shown us that the Hidden use their own hair to make ropes, if they were willing to give some of the ropes to my people, they would be highly motivated to protect a source of the hair. The people your protectors 'dealt with' would have killed the Hidden for their hair as it sells for a very high price. If my government had a source to get it without killing, that would be an incredible bargaining tool."
"I will talk to Charlie," said Harry. Lyra stood on her toes and whispered something in his ear. "We also want to bring along one of the Hidden, our brother Whispers."
Lyra looked back and there was the small demiguise that had 'spoken' to them peeking out from behind a tree.
"Students are usually allowed to bring only an owl, a cat, or a toad," said Minerva as if she was reciting from a list. "However, exceptions have been made before, and it is clear that this Whispers is not a pet. I will need to speak with the Headmaster about this."
"I will also speak to my government about setting up the sanctuary. Do you have any of the rope from the Hidden I can take with me to open the discussion with them?" asked Nestor.
Lyra whistled to Whispers who came running out from where he was watching the discussion. She said to him, along with gestures, "Bring rope." [Bring, Rope]
Whispers scampered up the tree and came back down a minute later with a coil of about twenty feet. Nestor handled it with awe. "Just so you can be aware of it, this amount of hair is worth enough to feed a family of four for about two years." He put it into a pouch on his belt.
Minerva and Nestor apparated away, leaving Alastor, Severus, and Tristan on the island.
"We were going to head up the mountain today to gather feathers from the hoohoo nest. Would you like to come?" Harry asked.
Tristan was intrigued as he had only seen a hoohoo at a quidditch match when he was younger. Alastor thought it might be interesting. Severus was intrigued at the uses they had shown him in their primitive but effective potions. Everyone agreed.
"It will take until noon to reach the summit of the mountain," Harry began.
"We can just apparate to the top like we do when we travel to the island," interrupted Tristan.
"That would be useful. Can you show us how?" asked Harry
"Children aren't allowed to do it by themselves. We can take you, but you need to get a license when you are seventeen years old," responded Alastor.
Alastor reached out to Harry and Severus did the same for Lyra. The four of them and Tristan disappeared with a snap.
Whisper looked around then raised his hands in the internationally recognized sign of 'whatever.'
Five hours later, Minerva was able to catch a portkey back to Hogwarts.
The first thing she thought when she arrived was 'It's freezing here.'
She used to enjoy the British summers, even with the rain. It was pleasantly warm. Now, after spending the last month and a half in the tropics, it was freezing cold. She cast a warming charm on herself and flew her broom up to the castle from Hogsmede.
The previous year, she had stopped knocking at Albus's office, he always knew who was coming, so if he really wanted to, he could lock the door. She just walked in as he started to say, "Come in Minerva."
He took a quick look at her and smiled. "I hope Severus is also getting some sun."
"He has," Minerva responded. "He is also enjoying learning new things."
"Your reports have not been very detailed," said Albus. "You found the children, they were living in a village of demiguises of all things, and they were reluctant to leave. I assume there is a new development for you to travel all the way back to speak with me.
"There has, the children have agreed to come back with a few conditions," said Minerva. "I do not see any reason why they can't be met. One of them is already being taken care of by the Filipino Ministry, which was protection for the island."
"And the others?" asked Albus.
"The children will return to the island for their holiday breaks. They also wish to bring along one of the demiguises, also a young one, named Whispers. They refer to him as a brother and he can speak basic words and a rudimentary sign language," Minerva spoke firmly as if there was no room for negotiation. "I also have my own condition for their return. Neither of them will ever have to see their families here if they do not wish to."
After a moment's thought, Albus replied. "I can agree to all of these, though Arcturus will demand to see the girl. After you head back, I will speak to him and explain the situation. Until the school year begins, where will the children live?"
"I figure we can put them up in the Leaky Cauldron with Alastor and Tristan acting as guards. That way they can explore the alley, retrieve their supplies, and anything else they need."
"I will firecall Tom and ask him to allow the Aurors to set up a room with extra protection," said Dumbledore.
"Good, we are agreed," stated Minerva. "I will work on my lesson plans for the fall. After consideration, I am going to add an animagus class to the curriculum for my NEWT students. Please inform the other professors to have allowances made for students under the effect of the mandrake leaves during the first phase of the ritual. I will return to the Philippines in a week. Please have the room ready for the children by then, I would like to see it before I leave."
She headed out of the office leaving Albus to his current problem of finding a new Defense teacher. Only one candidate was applying for the position, and he was a buffoon.
When Minerva returned, there was a lot of work being done on the island.
In accordance with what Nestor had predicted, the Filipino Ministry had jumped on the chance to have a continuing source of demiguise hair to boost their budget. All along the perimeter of the island, there were teams of warders and curse breakers setting up complicated-looking stone pillars, etched top to bottom with runes. Minerva found Harry yelling at one of the workers.
The curse breaker was trying to explain something to him, "We don't have enough space on the beaches on the north side, the geomancy doesn't work, we will need to set up in the valley and then extend outwards towards the beach."
Harry yelled back, "Then find another way. The protector in the valley will kill you." Harry stamped his staff into the ground, the impact was half as loud as a clap of thunder, and ripples were sent through the sand around him. "My staff is made from one of his horns. The protector is over twice my height and moves faster than you think. You and your people will die. Find. Another. Way."
The curse breaker was shocked a bit by the staff's impact but continued to dismiss him as a child. Harry turned to Minerva. "Welcome back. Please find Nestor, his people are going to be killed if they go to the valley of the protector... I didn't even mention the snake breeding pits I set up," Harry said, his eyes widening at the last part.
Minerva summoned a patronus to inform Nestor and then went in search of Alastor.
She ran into Harry again at the village where he, Severus, Alastor, and Tristan were sitting around a bubbling cauldron. Tristan was sporting a new look. All of his hair was gone and there was a burn scar along the side of his head.
"What happened?" She exclaimed in shock.
"Tristan here got his first scar!" said Alastor with a smile and a bit of pride. "I was afraid that Tristan was going to be my first trainee to graduate without getting marked."
Tristan did not look as happy as Alastor, "I was warned by his last trainee about getting a 'Mad-Eye Mark.' but I had lasted this long, so I was hoping to avoid it. The moment after you left, we paid a visit to the hoohoo nest. Lyra showed me the chicks, and when I was going to hold one, the patriarch did not approve and I got roasted. I knew they could burn things near them, but this one threw fire in a spiraling flame from his tail. When I woke up at the hospital, the healers had repaired most of the burns, but I was left with no hair on my head and face as well as this scar, both of which they said would be permanent. My mom is going to kill me, she loved my curls."
Severus joined in the conversation, "Which leads us to our current undertaking. We were discussing accidental magic, and because I have seen the memories of the Dursleys, one memory stood out when Harry regrew his hair overnight. Harry also mentioned it has happened again since then. We shaved Harry's head yesterday to check and all the hair came back overnight again, oddly enough with the same silver streaks that used to be woven hair of the demiguises. Now it's natural. We are using the shaven hair in the base for a potion to try to regrow Tristan's hair. It will be finished in about an hour."
Minerva sat down and waited with the rest of them. When it was done, they poured the contents into a bowl and a cup. In the bowl, they added some of the ash they had used before from the wood burnt over the hoohoo feather as it would thicken the mixture and hopefully assist the process since the burn came from the hoohoo fire, to begin with. Then, using a spatula, they applied the paste to Tristan's head and then covered it in plastic wrap. He then drank the potion, informing everyone that it tasted like feet.
Nothing happened.
The next morning, the adults all woke up to screaming. They had been spending the night in tents while the warding teams did their work. Running into Tristan's tent, they saw what looked like a yeti in Tristan's bed.
Severus cast a silencing charm on the young man and told him to quit yelling. When he had calmed down, the charm was dismissed and he started talking, though there was so much hair, they couldn't tell where his mouth was.
"I woke up and it felt like I was sleeping in a cloud, I rolled over and my hands wrapped around some hair and it reminded me of a girl I knew, so I assumed I was still dreaming, but then when I started to play with the hair, I felt it pull and I realized it was mine. I opened my eyes and I couldn't see." Tristan stood up, hair was everywhere from his head to his feet in a vaguely human shape. He stuck his hands out and waved them, but there was hair coming out of them too on the backsides, just a few inches, but still, hair everywhere.
Alastor was trying to hold back laughter, "Hold on boy, I'll get some scissors." He walked out.
"He has a wand, why does he need scissors?" Tristan asked.
"Well, I guess we can say the potion worked," said Severus. "Though we may need to work on the dosage."
Alastor came back in with a pair of scissors and a camera with a tripod. "I brought the scissors and a camera. We need to document this as part of the experiment. Also, I'm sure Harry will want to see it. Maybe your mother too. If it makes you feel any better, consider it an order from a superior officer."
From somewhere in the hair Tristan grumbled, "It doesn't."
Alastor readied the tripod and passed the scissors to Minerva. "OK, before we start cutting, I want you to move around. If you don't, I'm going to cast tickling and dancing hexes."
Tristan started to dance and spin and Alastor began taking pictures.
A few hours later, Tristan was down to just a few inches on everything below his scalp. He looked like a blonde monkey. He had his curls on top of his head except for the burn scar down the side. His eyebrows and lashes had been the worst as they were all about a foot long. A few more pictures got taken of his hair like this before they handed him back his wand and told him he could do the rest. Severus collected the hair to run tests on it.
The next night, they were awoken by panicked shouting and chaos. A team of warders was coming back into the camp carrying four severely injured wizards. One looked like all the bones below his waist were broken. Another had a hole straight through his abdomen with some kind of spell keeping everything inside from spilling out. The third was carrying his own severed arm and the last one was covered in blood below his waist but it wasn't apparent where it was coming from until they passed by and there was a gash across his back with blood soaking his clothes.
Severus started applying potions and bandages while their healer started working. "What the bloody hell happened?"
"We were setting up the wards in the valley of the north side of the island when we saw this enormous white deer with a glowing light. It took one look at us and charged. All our spells just melted away before they hit. The spells didn't bounce or get absorbed, it was like watching the light of our spells turn into colored smoke. Three of our guys got hit by the horns and one more got trampled. We just barely got away."
Suddenly, Harry was there, appearing out of the darkness, fire in his eyes, everyone looked at him. One of the warders yelled at him, "Merlin and Morgana, what was that?"
"I warned you!" Harry yelled. "I warned you. But did you listen to me? No, you knew didn't you, it's just a harmless little deer, isn't it? Why would you listen to me? You're listening to me now, right?"
The warders stared at him and nodded.
"One more thing I forgot to mention. If you come across a tree with two rings of stones around it, do not approach it. You will die. You won't get wounded and you won't even get a chance to bring your dead friends back to camp. I do hope you listen to this warning." Harry walked away into the darkness. "You're all lucky the worst monster on this island was killed long ago," he said right before he vanished into the trees.
This was a terrifying island.
The warders were able to finish the protections for the island on the north side by making them larger than the original plan. They also put signs around the northern section not to get near the glowing light at night.
The Filipino Ministry also assigned an XXXX rating to the animal, though no name was listed yet, just a description. The only thing that stopped the fifth X was that no one died.
One of the warders was curious about the tree that Harry spoke about. However, after the incident with the protector in the valley, Nestor just stunned the man and sent him home.
Finally, it was the day before Harry and Lyra were to leave, so they had a large feast on the island. The warding team brought a huge amount of food and drinks while fruits, berries, fish, and grubs were set out by the Hidden tribe. There was music and dancing and magic. The Giver and the Usurper showed up for an hour scaring the daylights out of the warding team who had never met the strange creature or the forty-foot-long snake. They left after collecting samples of the various foods that the wizards had brought and presented Harry and Lyra with a large bag that they didn't open. It appeared to be made of the shed skin of the giant snake.
Harry and Lyra were along for the ride as the only children there, but they were at least enjoying the food and music.
At the end of the meal, Minerva called for silence.
"This is the end of a great project and we have a few things to celebrate. First, charge your glasses!"
Everyone filled up on a drink of their choice. One of the curse breakers passed shots of fire whiskey to Charlie and Chief as well who sniffed it curiously.
"The first toast goes to Nestor Balindong!" Everyone cheered. Minerva continued, "Today, he received his official transfer and promotion to be a section head in the Department of Magical Creatures in charge of this island and its safety. To Nestor!"
Everyone drank. Charlie and Chief coughed up red flames and rolled on the ground. They got back up, shaking their heads all over the place. The curse breaker that gave them shots before held out two more which they took and sat back down.
Nestor stood up. "The next toast goes to Oscar Pallando and his warding team!" More cheers. "This was a monumental project that will ensure the protection of at least five magical species and boost revenues for the Filipino Ministry. To the warding team!"
Everyone drank. Charlie and Chief didn't react as badly this time and had fun blowing smoke at other people at the event.
Alastor stood up now. "Charge your glasses!" Everyone filled their glasses, "This toast goes to Tristan Nevitt. Tristan was my 49th trainee in the British Auror Training Program. I say 'was,' because today, I sent in the paperwork completing his training. He can dodge hexes in his sleep, he snuck up me and stunned me while my eyes were open, has been scarred by a hoohoo, he had to be shaved after taking an experimental hair growth potion, and when he returns to England he will graduate with a golden wand on his lapel. To Tristan!"
Cheers rang out and everyone drank. Charlie and Chief were now drunk, having never drunk alcohol before, and were engaged in a slap fight while blowing fire whiskey smoke at each other. The curse breaker who was giving them drinks was told to stop and now gave them mango juice.
Minerva got back up, "This is the last toast, and then a surprise. This toast goes to the two children who are the reason we are all here. To Lyra and Harry. You two have faced insurmountable odds to reach this point. You have educated and taught a language of your own invention to magical creatures. You have formed bonds with other intelligent species. You have learned magic without education. Now you are braving the return to your homeland to climb to even greater heights. Your future is written only by yourselves. To Lyra and Harry!"
Deafening cheers went up as all eyes looked at the two children. They looked up at all the adults cheering them, yet the cheers made them feel much larger.
Severus stood up finally. "The last part is a surprise. Not many know this, but I am actually a very good cook. Some will say that potions are a lot like cooking and I will hex them for such a statement. Though there are parallels. Now, Harry, you have not had a calendar for many years, so you might not know this, but today is the 31st of July. Today is your birthday." Harry gasped loudly. Lyra could see his eyes start to water, so she reached over and held his hand. "Bring out the cake!"
Four members of the warding team came out of a tent holding a cake that was at least two feet across on the base and five layers tall with a burning number '12' on the top. All the lights in the party went out and everyone proceeded to sing the Happy Birthday song to Harry.
This was Harry's first birthday party. He was vividly reminded of the parties had watched or listened to from his room for his cousin. Here, the music, the food, the people; even if it wasn't all for him, it was still his birthday and he had been a part of it. The cake was there in front of him with candles, bigger and better than the one he had made for Dudley. This time, he would get to have some.
When they stopped, they looked down at Harry who had tears rolling down his face into a huge smile. Lyra was hugging him as fiercely as she could and crying too. No one knew what to make of this, so one of the warders just cut him a piece of the chocolate cake and dropped a scoop of vanilla ice cream on it. Harry took one bite of it and started to cry harder. It was better than he had remembered, and it was his cake for his birthday. The ice cream tasted magical even if it really wasn't, and the combination pulled forth the memories of the tastes that brought him the little bits of happiness he had the summer before kindergarten.
When he took his second bite, he started laughing as he was crying and passed his plate to Lyra as he laughed and cried more. Remembering when he saw his cousin eating cake out of his hand, Harry approached the cake and reached into it, took a handful, and ate it right there. He then put his cake-filled fist in the air and cheered.
Everyone else took this as a good sign and cheered along with him. Cake and ice cream were handed out and the festivities continued well into the night.
Author's Note: That last scene was my favorite scene to write so far, I could summon a Patronus with that memory.