A tired Harry trudged down the hallway of Grimmauld Place to get some much-needed lunch. The past few hours had been exhausting. Not that they had been exhausting from a magical or physical sense, but he was mentally worn out from three straight hours of being both on edge and utterly bored. Given his current mental state, he was rather unhappy with being forced back into Sirius's gloomy old childhood home.

Harry sighed.

He was being unfair. Grimmauld Place could hardly be called gloomy. With all the cleaning he had done, the place was bright and airy. The sunlight streamed in through the windows, the air was fresh, and all the dark artifacts had been moved into storage at Gringotts. Walburga's portrait was also pleasant to be around (Harry suspected that the limited consciousness of the painting had somewhat forgotten why it had decided to be nice to everyone, as it had stopped asking about when they were going to sacrifice Remus). Walburga's good mood, of course, meant that Kreacher was often in a good mood (especially after Harry had supplied the House Elf with a small and comfortable chair, in which he could sit and spend most of the day next to his beloved mistress's portrait). If it wasn't for the fact that Sirius's mood always became slightly subdued in the house, the place would be downright homey. Except, a subdued Sirius felt so unnatural that it was impossible for the house to completely lose its initial gloomy impression.

Tacked onto the slightly off vibes of the house, there was the fact that two days ago Harry had been on a beach in Hawaii mutually flirting with a very pretty muggle girl named Sarah. Honestly, the house could be the homiest home of all the homes that have ever homed, and it would still be a let down from chatting up a pretty girl in a swimsuit.

Harry's lips turned up slightly at the memory of his stay in Hawaii. There was nothing quite like relaxing on a beach after a hard morning of training. It was both relaxing and allowed him the opportunity to expand his skills in the field of flirting. He had initially been very tentative when it came to talking to members of the opposite sex. Sirius had taken it on as his duty to train Harry in all the things dating-related, and while the man was enthusiastic, he was not a very good teacher (or very good at the activity itself). Albus and Remus were of even less help in teaching Harry how to not be incredibly awkward around pretty girls.

Surprisingly (or retrospectively unsurprisingly), it was Gilderoy who became Harry's best tutor in the art of flirting. Say what you will about the man, when he wasn't being forced to back up his boasts with proof, he was downright charming. While the man wrote voluminous letters about the art of charming others (and was currently contemplating the best way to monetize his volumes of advice), it had mainly boiled down to two main takeaways for Harry. The first was that people respond well to confidence, so pretend to be confident until you really become confident.

The second takeaway went against Sirius's teachings. Sirius apparently based his teachings on his understanding of Harry's father's technique. That being, once you decide who you want to be with, pursue them doggedly no matter how much the person displays their disinterest. Harry suspected (or at least hoped) that Sirius didn't fully understand the courtship between his mum and dad.

Gilderoy's advice was that there was no point in flirting with someone who didn't respond positively to one's advances. While it was true that you had to prove that you were worth talking to and pursuing, it was equally true that the object of your affection had to prove that they were worth pursuing as well. As Gilderoy said, "if they aren't smart enough to see how amazing you are, then they aren't smart enough to be worth pursuing". Harry could easily see how the advice could be used to play games with people, but by itself it was a great mindset that took off all the pressure and transformed his approach from walking into a high stakes job interview into simply having a fun conversation between equals. He had yet to stay in a place long enough to bother with pursuing a date, but the flirting with various girls had been innocent fun, and he did have Sarah's phone number if he ever found himself in Duluth (which is where her family was visiting from… wherever that was).

As Harry's mind wandered back to Hawaii and swimming in the warm ocean with the pretty Sarah, he was understandably distracted and only vaguely recognized that the kitchen was pitch black. Because of this distraction, it took several seconds before his conscious mind caught up with his actions.

As he stepped into the pitch-black kitchen, he detected a burst of magic. From a full year of intense training, his finely honed battle instincts took complete control. They instantly noted that the magic had the same tinge as the various spells he had trained against that caused overloading of the senses. It was also a general area spell, rather than a directed spell. As such, he was clearly being attacked by an unknown enemy that wished to disorient him first.

With practiced ease, he dropped down to the floor at the appropriate angle to perform a tight roll to the left to get himself to the nearest wall. As he dropped down, he cast the appropriate magic which would slightly deaden his senses (it was like putting on sunglasses, but for all five senses). As he entered his roll, his wand slipped into his right hand as a bright light and loud sound filled the room (his protection kept him from being disoriented and he could see the dim shadows of many people standing in the room). When he reached the wall, he slammed his hand against the ground and immediately pumped his magic through his hand and began to transfigure the floor into a protective stone wall.

His conscious mind regained control as the bright light and loud sound faded, with his wall built up to only cover half of his crouching height. He quickly tapped his head with his wand to disillusion himself as the wall continued to build in width and height. He thought about teleporting out of the room, but he didn't know if Albus, Sirius, Remus, and Dobby were safe. He would not abandon them if he could help it.

The last of the light and sound faded as the wall completed its construction to totally hide his crouching disillusioned body (it would hopefully provide enough of a shield from a barrage of magic to give him the time to run if needed). He dispelled the magic that was deadening his senses, tensely awaiting the next move from the attackers. He detected another burst of magic, while he heard the attackers all shout the start of a spell in unison. The spell name started with a "S" sound (his training instantly supplying half a dozen harmful spells that they could be using).

So, this was a coordinated attack, which meant that his wall would not last long in this fight. Albus had trained Harry for cases of taking on overwhelming numbers like this and had even created a spell to take advantage of large groups shouting a spell in unison (the man was a wonderful combination of brilliant and paranoid at times). Harry pointed his wand at the shouting crowd while he wordlessly cast Albus's spell, ensuring he empowered the spell to account for the number of targets.

The spell was like a normal stunning spell, except it would split up and home in on all loud sources of sound. In this case, the spell split up and immediately zoomed towards the mouth of each attacker. This would hopefully thin the numbers enough to give Harry the time to find his family and either finish the enemy or escape.

Sadly, his plan did not come to fruition. He felt his heart sink as he felt his spell slam into a wall of shielding magic. That had apparently been the second burst of magic he had felt. That meant that this was a well thought out attack where they were prepared for him, and Harry's odds of successfully fending off the attackers with stunners and shields was now dropping precipitously. His training told him that his choices were narrowing quickly to either escaping or transitioning to attacks that were more likely to maim or kill. In preparation, he put his hand against his stone wall and prepared his magic to pulse out to cause it to shatter and turn into a wall of flying stone shrapnel.

It was at this point that the attackers completed their curse with a loud "RISE" (what spell was that?). Harry braced himself, but he detected no magic. What was happening?

The lights turned on in the kitchen, as Harry braced for the next attack. His mind rolled the shouted spell over in his mind. What spell started with a S and ended with a RISE? S… RISE… S… RISE… What could it be? What could… wait!

Harry blinked as he remembered the current day. With great caution, he peaked over the top of his wall to look at the now visible crowd of people in the kitchen. Once he saw them, he silently groaned.

His family was safe, as they were standing amongst the "attackers". The attackers consisting of Hermione and her parents, the Weasleys, Pierre (who Harry hadn't seen since he had stayed at the man's house in France), an odd-looking blonde father and daughter pair (the girl had earrings made of turnips), Gilderoy, Horace Slughorn, and Marcus's family (though he didn't see Marcus). Behind them was a giant cake sitting on a table that Harry suspected had been strengthened to handle the immense weight of said cake. Above them was a banner that read "Happy Birthday Harry".

Harry looked to his right. There was Albus, pointing his wand at the crowd as he maintained the shield to protect them from Harry.

Albus looked down in the direction of Harry's disillusioned form and spoke with evident amusement in his voice. "Is it safe for your friends for me to stop shielding them, Harry?"

With a huff, Harry cancelled his disillusionment (while still ducking behind the wall, as Albus's training still had him trying to keep as many of his abilities a surprise as possible). He then pointed his wand at the wall (to hide the extent of his wandless abilities) as he mentally cancelled the transfiguration magic to return it back into a wooden floor.

He stood and waved awkwardly at the visitors before turning a mild glare on Albus. "You couldn't have warned me?"

Albus smiled, his eyes twinkling. "Sirius insisted. I did tell him that it was bad idea though. Remus also warned Sirius, though I doubt he expected your reaction to be so… effective."

Harry looked over and saw both Remus and Sirius's eyes were wide in shock. The other guests were also in various states of shock and surprise.

A young voice piped up from the far corner of the room. "I also told them it was a bad idea, Harry! It's why I asked Dobby to make me a place to hide."

Harry smiled broadly as Marcus and Dobby emerged from behind a small stone enclosure of their own in one corner of the kitchen. They had apparently been hiding since before Harry walked in.

"That's because you and Dobby are the two smartest people in the house."

Between the child and the house elf, in response to Harry's words, it was hard to say which one beamed the brightest.

The party was a lot of fun. As he laid in bed that night, Harry marveled at how the year apart from his friends had helped to heal the rifts that had been formed in his second year. While his conversation with Ron was still a bit awkward, it was pleasant. A year ago, seeing anyone from Hogwarts would have made for a distinctly unenjoyable party, but distance, time, and perspective were truly great healers.

The presents were fun to go through.

From the Weasleys, he received a book on Incan wards (thanks to Bill). Hermione stared at the book enviously, but surprisingly did not try to borrow the book for the rest of the party.

From Hermione, he received a quidditch model set. It would allow Harry to use his wand to direct a quidditch game above a game board, roughly the same size as a chess board. It required an opponent to play the opposing team. She told him that she had noticed how in his letters he rarely mentioned flying his broom, so she thought he might be missing the game. Harry felt touched by the gift.

Sirius and Remus had managed to track down some of his mum's old friends and compiled a book of stories all about her. These being stories that they hadn't even been aware of.

The gift from Albus was a month-long trip seeking mythical beasts with the owner of the Quibbler, which Harry was very excited to begin in the coming days.

The most impressive gift came from Marcus. It was a book that the boy had written himself, compiling all his thoughts on how to learn about the field of Potions more efficiently. Of course, the only people who didn't think it was just a "cute" present were Harry, Albus, Sirius, Remus, and Marcus's family. No one outside of that group was aware of the fact that Marcus had recently begun corresponding with Albus to start exploring the field of Alchemy. Harry knew that Marcus's book was likely to become the most valuable book he owned.

As he lay on his bed, his body stuffed with an excessive amount of cake, he recalled some of his conversations from the party.

"What's this?" Harry asked Albus, as the man handed him a letter.

"It's a letter from your cousin Dudley. I thought you might find it interesting."

Harry looked at the letter dubiously. When he opened it, he was surprised to see the writing was legible, as Dudley's handwriting had always been… well dodgy was the kindest way of putting it. This handwriting, while still in need of improvement, was leagues ahead of the Dudley's old chicken scratch.

"Dear Harry,

I hope this letter finally gets to you. The last few I sent kept on being returned. Mum finally told me how she was able to send a letter to your school, so I hope they'll pass this on to you.

First, can you get your teacher, Mister Dumpledoor, to pick up his screaming book? I've learned my lesson, alright? I'm eating right. I'm exercising. I'm studying. And I'm not bullying anyone. Please, get him to take the book away!

Second, I'm sorry! After being bullied by a book for a year, I can see how you must have felt. I was a right prat, and I know that now. I'm sorry for bullying you all those years. I really do mean that. So, PLEASE get this book away from me!

Sincerely,

Dudley"

Harry frowned as he finished reading the letter. He looked down at an included picture of a skinny Dudley. He then looked up at Albus in confusion.

"What book?"

Albus's eyes twinkled. "It's called The Screaming Book of Good Behavior. It's designed to act as a sort of study aid for recalcitrant students. It bonds to a student and then follows them everywhere they go, where only the student can hear and see the book, unless a person has magic and knows to look for the book. Whenever it observes the student performing bad behavior, it screams until the student starts doing something considered to be good."

Harry smirked slightly. While he felt a bit bad about Dudley being tormented by a screaming book, he didn't feel THAT bad. "And you gave him that book?"

Albus shrugged. "Not intentionally. It was a joke book meant for you. My father gave it to me when I started Hogwarts, and I thought you might find it humorous for a few days. I honestly thought I had lost it. After reading Dudley's letter and thinking about it, I finally remembered it escaping when we visited the Dursley household. Sadly, at the time, I did not consciously notice it hurrying up the stairs. Worry not, I have already retrieved the book and reset it to no longer be bonded to your cousin."

Harry looked back down at the letter and attached photograph. He couldn't help but smile.

"Hello George… Fred… Hermione" Harry spoke, making sure to look at the correct twin as he spoke their respective names.

"Nice try, Harrikins" spoke Fred, "but I'm George. That is Fred."

"I thought I was George!"

"No, I'm George, you're Gred!"

"Are you sure, I thought You were Forge, that was Geormione, and I was Hed."

Harry smiled as Hermione jumped into the fray, and the three argued for several minutes as they mangled their names further. He had not seen Hermione so relaxed since… he was not sure he had ever seen Hermione relaxed. Apparently, a great way of loosening up was using a dung bomb to befoul school property to the point of having to discard of said property. After that day, she had truly embraced her role as a prankster and was considered an honorary Weasley Twin.

After his conversation wrapped up with the trio, with Hermione giving a tentative hug, and Harry ensuring he spoke the correct name to each twin (causing the muscle to twitch under George's left eye), Mrs. Weasley walked over.

"Harry Dear" she said softly. "I know that Albus told you some of the tricks for telling the boys apart. But please try to let them believe they can still fool you on occasion."

Harry looked at the woman in surprise. "You know how to tell them apart?"

She smiled warmly. "I raised them. I was there every step of the way as they slowly learned how to lie convincingly. I know my children, Harry."

"But… when I first met you in the station, you got the two of them confused…"

"Their game is harmless fun, and it makes them happy to think they fooled their mother. It's always nice to see them off to school with a smile on their faces. Besides, they have their father's sense of humor, and it is wonderful to see them as miniature Arthurs."

Harry's voice grew confused. "They have Mr. Weasley's sense of humor?"

Mrs. Weasley's face took on an incredibly fond smile. "Ah yes. That man… his pranks are subtler, but he still finds great joy in them. Surely you noticed his prank on you with your stay at our home?"

"What prank?"

Her eyebrows rose in surprise as she responded. "The rubber duck? Oh dear, I thought you were just playing along. Harry, dear, Arthur spends most of his days working in the muggle world. He has taken apart, modified, and rebuilt a car. Even without all of that, it is hardly difficult to discern that a rubber duck is a child's bath toy."

"Wait… so, Mr. Weasley was just…"

Mrs. Weasley sighed. "Some people like to pretend they are more drunk than they really are. Arthur likes to play up the role of a stereotypical Pureblood Wizard when he meets the muggle-raised friends of his children. He thinks it is quite funny to see how far he can push the prank before the children catch on. He was certain the rubber duck joke gave it all away, as he was quite tired when he met you. Oh… please don't tell him I gave away his little game."

Harry smiled. "I'll keep it between the two of us. It's nice to hear he doesn't really collect plugs or anything like that."

The woman grimaced slightly. "No… that's real. He finds them fascinating. Something about how some countries have different plugs and… honestly, I'm happy he finds it so exciting, but… well, that wasn't the reason I came over. Though, I now suspect I will soon have to go and warn Hermione's parents about Arthur's sense of humor. I wanted to thank you for helping my dear Percy."

"Oh?"

"He met Barty Crouch Sr when he was a boy, and absolutely idolized the man as the perfect example of a Ministry worker. After learning about what that man did to poor Sirius, which led to that horrid man pretending to be Percy's pet rat… Percy was left questioning his commitment to a career in the Ministry. And then you got him his job with THE Gilderoy Lockhart, and it warms my heart to see him so excited. And, of course, knowing that he will be safe around such an accomplished wizard."

Harry barely held back rolling his eyes at that last comment. "It wasn't much, Mrs. Weasley. Gilderoy was looking for a new assistant to track all of the… highly specific desires of his clients. I told him that I knew Percy was finishing his last year at Hogwarts, was one of the most detail-oriented people I knew, and that he was… um… very enthusiastic in his goal to please his superiors. At best, I got Gilderoy to give him a shot at an interview. It was Percy who took the Quaffle and flew with it."

"Still, I don't know if he would have been passed up for the interview as being too young if it wasn't for your kind words. You are a good young man, a bit more… free with your spells outside of school then I care to see, but its nice to know that Albus is making sure you can protect yourself. Thank you, Harry Dear and… oh… Arthur has trapped the Grangers in a conversation. I better go rescue them. Excuse me Harry, dear. That man… I swear if he didn't have such a…"

Mrs. Weasley began to mumble to herself as she walked away. Harry firmly decided to assume he misheard the end of the woman's mumbling. He really didn't want to have heard the woman, regardless of her talking about her husband, say the words "… cute bum".

As Harry began to drift off, his memories of the conversations began to lose their distinctness.

He recalled spending fifteen minutes with Gilderoy and Horace, as they discussed selling off slices of magically preserved "Harry Potter's Birthday Cake" to fans across the globe. There was certainly more than enough of the behemoth to make that happen. Harry made sure that the proceeds would go to charities designed to help children in need, located in the home country of the… sigh… fans buying the cake slices. Luckily, the conversation ended when Horace broached the topic of changing how much money they got from the services they provided for Harry, as Gilderoy certainly didn't want to have any of THAT dirty laundry aired.

Luckily, Rita had not attended the party. Something about her not wanting to be tempted by that much potential gossip. Still, Harry was pleased (and a bit disturbed) to receive the news that Gilderoy and Rita were now engaged to be married. He and Albus would receive their invitations when the couple chose a date and venue for their ceremony.

He also had a fun conversation with the Lovegoods (the girl with turnip earrings was apparently Ginny's friend, and was named Luna). They had a wonderful conversation about what animals they would be seeking on their upcoming trip, which made Harry very excited. They were definitely an eccentric family. Eccentric, but very sweet.

He, of course, spent quite a bit of time with the Smythe family. Harry was now considered to be Marcus's honorary older brother. Terrence, Marcus's real older brother who would be going into his seventh year, had initially been rather jealous when he saw how much Marcus worshipped Harry. Luckily, the older boy had decided that he would simply outdo Harry and made sure he doubled the letter writing rate that Harry achieved. Marcus was thrilled to receive the extra attention, so it was a win for all the Smythe family. Other than the pleasant conversation, the only thing of note was that Terrence (who was in Ravenclaw) was surprised Harry was friends with Luna Lovegood, and he promised that he would watch after the girl and he would do his best to make sure that his housemates would treat her with respect and kindness from now on. Harry didn't like the implications of that promise, but he appreciated that any past bad behavior would be brought to an end.

The last memory that came to mind was a question from Hermione.

"Harry… from what little I saw of you before your… impressive response to the surprise party… you seemed worn out. Did Professor Dumbledore force you to train this morning, despite it being your birthday?"

Harry paused. "Well…"

Harry was on edge and extremely bored. He could not wait until he was done with this task and could have some lunch.

"This is not how I suspected I would be spending my morning" he grumbled.

A soft chuckle emanated from next to his right ear. "I would be highly impressed if you had predicted being in this situation."

The situation, in this case, being Harry floating invisibly through a complex series of caves with one Albus Dumbledore magically sticking to his back.

"It looks like we will want to be taking the 2nd entrance on the left. Ensure you avoid the waterfall there. That is called Thief's Downfall, and I am unsure what effect it will have on your magic. Best to keep the wide berth from the tracks you have been maintaining."

It should be noted that this specific set of caves happened to be directly under the London branch of Gringotts bank and contained all their vaults.

As Harry ensured he continued to avoid the track and the upcoming waterfall, he continued to grumble softly. "I was at Gringotts this morning, Harry, he says. It looks like there is a horcrux there, he says. Let's rob Gringotts and then get some lunch, he says. Seriously Albus, don't you think we should have spent a little bit of time to devise a plan?"

"Why would we need to spend time to devise a plan for something so straightforward?"

Harry scoffed as he continued float them deeper into the cave system. "Because… this… is… Gringotts! It is one of the most secure location on the planet."

Harry suspected Albus had cast some magic to keep himself decently calm, as he was certain he felt the man shake some and was about to begin a full-bodied belly laugh. It instead turned into a very amused chuckle.

"Yes, and Gilderoy Lockhart is known as one of the most impressive fighters of the Dark the world has ever seen. Reputations can sometimes be a bit exaggerated for the sake of profit. Even without my discovery that your Hyper Jump bypasses their protections, it is not that difficult to break into the bank. Quirinus Quirrell was hardly a powerful wizard, and yet he still successfully robbed the vault containing the Stone. We were lucky the vault was empty, but it doesn't change the fact that he bypassed security, entered the vault, and left the bank without being caught. Begin heading straight down please."

Harry couldn't deny that statement, as he floated the pair downwards. "Well, if they are that bad at protecting these vaults, then why do people use them?"

"I wouldn't go so far as to say that they are bad at protecting the vaults. Quirinus did have Tom's input in how to proceed, and even as a shade he is a brilliant wizard. The key point is in the method the vaults are protected. The weakest layer of security is protecting the entrance to the caves. While they can detect invisibility and subterfuge to a degree, they can't be too aggressive as they regularly need to let customers down to the vaults entrance. The next layer of security is the layout of the caves. They intentionally make their carts too fast and the routes too complicated, to make it harder for potential thieves to find a specific vault to pillage. Luckily, your brand of flying is different from brooms and other known variants, so the wards are unable to detect nor negate your magic usage. Additionally, with the connection between horcruxes, I can use that to direct us to our destination which bypasses the security layer of obfuscation through complexity. Without the locket as a guide, it could easily take weeks or months to find our desired vault, which assumes we would know which value we should desire. Go back up and then go down the hole to the left."

Harry complied as he nodded to Albus's explanation. "And I guess they have other protections along the tracks like that waterfall, in addition to making it too difficult to navigate the caves. Since most people would have to use the tracks, that would be good protection. What about the vaults?"

"Each vault has a distinct set of wards and protections applied to it. As far as I have seen, no two vaults have the same protections. As such, being able to break into one vault without setting off the alarms does not mean you can break into any other vault. Even their expert curse breakers would need at least a few hours to break into their simpler vaults, and days for the complex vaults. Things get worse if you have a trusted employee open the vault, as the wards become active and will detect if anything is removed from the vault. Try not to disturb the dragon."

Harry looked down and saw a huge pale dragon rapidly approaching below them. The last dragon he had encountered was a baby, and he was now glad he had never met Norbert's parents. He was about to ask what they were going to do about the creature when he felt Albus pull something out of his robes and then point his wand near the dragon.

In front of the dragon's mouth was suddenly a very confused cow. Just as suddenly, the dragon's jaws snapped around the cow and gulped it down quickly. Within seconds, the dragon's eyelids drooped, its head laid down, and soon began to snore deeply.

"Nicholas and I developed a sleeping potion that would work on dragons, as they are usually too resistant to the normal variant of sleeping potion. It was the only way to safely get the blood we needed to study fresh blood and discover the myriad uses of which my Chocolate Frog Card claims I am so renown."

Harry nodded in understanding as they landed gently on the ground. Once disengaged from Harry's back, Albus walked directly to one of the vaults.

"Whose vault is this?"

Albus shrugged. "It like belongs to one of Tom's lieutenants. Although, it could be someone he forced into storing his horcrux. Perhaps he snuck in and placed it here without the knowledge of the owner. We might find out inside the vault, though I doubt it. Please hold still while I adjust our magic, so we are ignored by the protective spells."

Harry stood still as felt Albus's hand rest on his shoulder. After all his training, he felt the transitions of his magic much more intensely then when they had invaded Malfoy Manor. Although that might be attributed to the speed of the transitions. With the Malfoys, Albus was performing an educational exercise, but here it was a means to an end. Harry watched as the magic of the protections synched up with his own magic, the different colors quickly dropping away.

After 30 seconds, Albus started to step forward. Harry walked alongside his mentor as the two walked through the vault door as if it were smoke. With his hand still on Harry's shoulder, Albus raised his wand and an ornate metal cup floated towards them as the older man then began stripping various protection magics off of the horcrux.

Harry sighed. "I'm happy that this is going so smoothly, but I somewhat wish it was more exciting."

Albus smirked. "I'm sure you will have plenty of excitement in your life, Harry. You should just be grateful that we have the ability to seek out Tom's horcruxes at our leisure. Imagine if we were doing this during a state of active war."

"I suppose. And flying through Gringotts on my own will make a good story someday… if I could ever tell someone… Hey Albus…"

As the last of the protections came off the cup, Albus slipped the horcrux into a pouch designed to safely store it. He looked down at Harry with a questioning raising of his eyebrow.

"I think I would have preferred it if you had kidnapped me from the Dursleys long ago."

Albus smiled broadly. "I think I would have preferred that as well, my boy."

"Also, you could have started teaching me all of this cool magic much earlier. Which would have been awesome!"

Albus chuckled. "I'm afraid that would have been out of the question."

"Because I was too young?"

"Somewhat… though it is mainly because it took you several months to manage to cast your brand of magic without risking your magic destabilizing and causing you to explode, liquify, or both. The horcrux in your scar, which I initially could only deduce was chaotic magic, caused you to be constantly adjusting your magic to keep some semblance of stability to cast spells in the normal fashion. While the chaotic magic remained, I was predicting you would need a few decades of spell casting under your belt before you could somewhat safely start down the path of finding your own brand of magic. I was very pleased when I saw the day in the Goblin village that your magic was hundreds of times more stable than before."

Harry grimaced at the mental image of people attending his funereal, with his remains sloshing in a metal bucket.

"I really hate Tom and his horcruxes."

Albus nodded solemnly. "That is quite the bold stance to take."

Harry laughed silently.

With that, Albus performed a Hyper Jump and they found themselves in the entrance hallway of Grimmauld Place. Albus excused himself to make them some lunch in the kitchen. Harry didn't notice the man drawing his wand as he quickly made his way to the kitchen.

A tired Harry trudged down the hallway of Grimmauld Place to get some much-needed lunch.

"Well…" Harry said in response to Hermione's question.

"… even if it is my birthday, when he wants me to do something, I guess you could say that Albus… just won't get off my back."

Arthur and the twins weren't the only ones willing to tell joke only they got.