Birthday
One Wednesday morning, Harry Potter was sitting at the breakfast table with his daughter Lily.
Ginny Potter was levitating a huge cake through the flat, which her son James, who had come running down the stairs, almost crashed into.
"James!" scolded Ginny angrily.
"Sorry, Mum," the latter shouted as he dashed past her into the dining room with a parcel under his arm.
His black hair was dishevelled and tousled as usual and he didn't bother to make it look neat either.
"James," cursed Albus, who had inherited the same black hair but was at least making some effort with the tidiness on his head.
He ran down the stairs after his brother.
"It's not just your present!" he roared as he dodged the cake and disappeared into the dining room as well.
Ginny sighed.
As she entered the room with the cake, thankfully undamaged, her daughter Lily just fell into her father's arms. All that was visible of her head was the shock of dark red hair, which was either a mixture of her parents' hair colours or the exact shade of her grandmother.
"Happy Birthday, Dad!" all three children shouted together, and James and Albus handed him their parcel.
Harry palmed it. The parcel was soft and felt like there was something made of cloth inside.
"Something new to wear?" he asked as he removed the ribbon holding it together and opened it.
Two poison green gloves lay in it on top. Harry took them out and pulled them over his hands, which immediately disappeared.
"Camouflage gloves," Albus declared proudly, his green eyes shining with delight that his father obviously liked them.
Harry smiled and took a sky blue pointed hat from the packet. He placed it on his head and it too disappeared.
"A cloak of invisibility from Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes," James said, scratching the back of his head sheepishly, making his hair even messier.
All that was left now was a magenta cloak and that too was taken out. Harry now stood up and unfolded it. Then he put it around himself. Lily marvelled as his whole body suddenly disappeared into nothingness.
"We thought, since you don't have your cloak of invisibility anymore," Albus began.
"You could sure use those things!", James interrupted him, earning an annoyed look from his brother.
"They're great," Harry declared happily as he put his camouflage outfit back down and hugged both his sons.
The two of them were right. He had already passed on his old family heirloom to his first child a few years ago. He knew that his father had also been given the cloak when he had been at Hogwarts, and so he had wanted to carry on the old family tradition. While he knew that James was up to a lot of mischief with it, he was sure that he would grow up soon enough.
"Use it wisely," he had told him.
Harry rarely used a cloak of invisibility in Auror work anymore, but he felt that this new equipment certainly couldn't hurt.
Lily also had something for her father, something that had narrowly escaped her brothers twice now today and was now safely placed in the middle of the breakfast table.
"Mum helped me," Lily said, her hazel eyes twinkling as proudly as those of her brothers.
She handed a knife to her father, who immediately began to cut the cake.
When the whole family was finally seated and had all started to eat their piece of the cake, they heard something pecking at the window pane of the dining room.
Lily looked up.
It was an owl with three letters. Immediately she jumped up to open the window for her. The owl must have been just as excited as she was, because it fluttered in, screeching loudly.
Lily took the letters from her, two of which were addressed to her brothers, and she passed them on before looking closely at hers. It was the letter she had been waiting for for years. Ever since James had received his Hogwarts letter, she had been looking forward to finally going to the wizarding boarding school too. She knew the school's crest by heart, the animals of the four founders and, of course, the school motto "Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus", although she had no idea what it meant.
With trembling fingers she finally opened her letter, excitedly she took out the first parchment, unfolded it and then read it aloud:
HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY
Headmaster: Brenton Wennell
(Order of Merlin, Third Class)
Dear Miss Potter,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Enclosed you will find a list of all the books and equipment you will need.
The school year begins on the first of September. We expect your owl no later than 31 July.
Yours sincerely,
Fiona Crouch
Deputy Headmistress
James and Albus had also unfolded their letters by now and looked at their new book lists.
"I think we'll go to Angle Alley in the morning then," Ginny announced as she wrote a reply letter for Lily, who was giving the owl some owl biscuits.
Lily was looking forward to finally being able to buy all her school supplies and could hardly wait for tomorrow. This year she too would finally be going to Hogwarts with her brothers.
_
AN: Fiona Crouch is distantly related to Bartemius Crouch and is the Ravenclaw head teacher in this FF.
Why McGonagall doesn't play a role here?
This FF is from 2011, when JKR had said that McGonagall was already retired, until she changed everything again for Cursed Child. But maybe that's better, because I don't want too many shadows of the past here. Otherwise, I'm going to be very mindful that everything could be canon, because it's supposed to be a serious sequel.
The children will therefore also be very much reminiscent of their ancestors. It's supposed to be about nostalgia and evoking that real Harry Potter feeling that you all probably know. Feel free to leave a little comment if you feel I've achieved that, because that's my goal.
By the way, Albus is now in his third year and James in his fifth.
If you find any spelling mistakes, feel free to let me know. I'm always happy to get that kind of help!
