a/n: before you start, yes, this is a creature inheritance story, yes it's a parody of this type of story, and yes I know this is not how the creature side of creature inheritance usually works. I just don't care. I appreciate a good creature inheritance story every once in a while, but I read a bad one recently—not stating any names—and spontaneously decided that I needed to give it a go. I've done a few fix its here because I can't stand certain pairings or having some characters dead (you could have done so much more with the twins, Rowling, whyyyyy?!), but anyway, here it is.
Disclaimer: if I owned Harry Potter, would Ginny be with Harry? No. The answer is no. (Still a better love story than Twilight though—and why isn't there an acronym for that by now?)
Harry huffed his wild hair out of his eyes for the third time that morning. He was turning twenty four today, and was planning to spend the day at the Burrow with his adopted family. To say he was exited would be an inexcusable understatement.
"Harry, come on, grab that basket, will you?" Harry smiled—dopily, though he didn't know it—at his wife of two years, one Hermione Potter.
Hermione Potter scowled right back. She hated being late, especially so on important days. Whirling back to the kitchen counter, she finished packing the sweets for Ron, a muggle puzzle for the twins—who knew why they liked them so much, maybe it was the challenge? Regardless, this one was 750 pieces of Indian wildlife and had taken forever to find, she hoped they appreciated it—and the rest of the small gifts she'd collected for what she considered to be their extended family.
When Hermione turned back around to make sure Harry had seen the basket of muffins on the counter, she let out a yelp, throwing a hand over her eyes and spinning away quickly. "Please, Harry, tone it down a bit! You'll turn into a miniature sun at this rate!"
"Oh!" Cried Harry, who hadn't even realized his creature side was showing through, literally and metaphorically. "Sorry! Sorry, I'm just really exited."
"Right," said his wife, risking just a peek to ensure that Harry wasn't attempting to outshine all the lights in the room still, before fully removing her hand and grabbing her bags, "well, let's not dally any longer then."
There was a bounce in his step as Harry followed Hermione to the floo, barely remembering to snag the muffin basket from the table as he passed it. He, Hermione, Neville, Luna, Remus, Tonks, Teddy, and the entire Weasley family, along with all of their significant others and families were getting together to celebrate Harry and Neville's birthdays together. They'd done this the past five years as well, but this time Harry had a special gift for Neville. He couldn't wait.
Tumbling out of the floo onto the floor, ungraceful as ever, Harry couldn't stop the wide grin spreading across his face, nor the golden-pink glow emitting from his body.
"Harry! Hermione! Welcome!" Cried Molly from the kitchen in greeting, and Hermione was sure the others in the room would've said hello to if they weren't too busy getting their eyes boiled out of their skulls to remember that it's polite to welcome people when they come into your home.
"Harry!" Hollered Ginny through the piercing glow, "LIGHTS!"
"OH!" Said Harry, and the light emitting from his body cut out abruptly. "Sorry."
"Sure you are," grumbled Hermione, helping Harry to his feet with one hand and rubbing her watering eyes with the other. Ever since his creature inheritance at sixteen, Harry had been a literal spark plug, his emotions becoming blinding to everyone around him. He hadn't even had to cast spells at Voldemort in the final battle, he'd just had his side wear muggle sunglasses, and Voldie and all his followers were to busy shielding their eyes to shoot straight. (Needless to say, the casualty count had been significantly lower than it could have been.)
Hermione wasn't entirely sure why his inheritance translated into this instead of spewing fireballs all over the place and being obsessed with lanterns, but she, for one, definitely preferred this to potential alternatives. She knew Harry didn't like it when she wore sunglasses, understanding how it would hurt if she took precautions like that specifically against him, but sometimes she wondered why she didn't do it anyway, just for safety.
Looking around, Hermione spotted Ginny and Neville, Neville slowly turning back around to face them, bouncing their one-year-old daughter Gabby gently in his arms. Bill was wiping his eyes with a handkerchief in the doorway, and Tonks was on the floor, acting out a dramatic, light-related death fort he amusement of her and Remus' son Teddy.
Gazing around the room, Harry rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. Noticing Bill's spilled drink, he automatically moved forward, offering to help clean it up.
"Oh, yeah, thanks," said Bill, stuffing away his hanky while Harry went into the kitchen to get squeezed to death by the Weasley matriarch and hopefully pick up a towel too.
"So," said Hermione, poking Tonks body cautiously with her toe, "how's everybody been?"
Tonks kept up from the floor happily, narrowly avoiding hitting Hermione, and scooped Teddy into her arms. "We've been great!" She announced cheerfully, hair turning hot pink again, rather than the grey she'd had it in 'death,' "How's it been in Sunnyville?"
Hermione rolled her eyes at the nickname that had taken off after Ron dubbed their home with it once (coincidentally right after being blindsided by Harry). "We've been alright, well, you know Harry was promoted recently, and I just landed a great job, too." After finishing her schooling, Hermione had decided travel was her thing, and went all over the world working as a Magical and Muggle Language Translator. Charms were well and good, but were finicky, a bit like Google Translate, in magical form. "Where's everyone else?"
"Well," said Ginny, smiling at Neville as he hushed their baby gently, "Fleur's out back with Dad, Charlie, and Vic. Remus, Ron, and Luna were helping mum set up, Percy and Penelope haven't shown up yet, and the Twins and Draco have disappeared upstairs doing who knows what." Spotting the bag in Hermione's arms as her sight finally cleared, Ginny continued, "Ah! You have stuff! Come, let's put all that away."
Ginny wasn't quite matronly yet, Hermione decided, but she'd definitely inherited Molly's bustling attitude. Snagging the muffin basket from where Harry had left it on the floor, she continued into the kitchen after the redhead.
Harry, Remus and Ron were in the corner, discussing something or other, Harry standing on one leg as he was wont to do when surrounded by people he trusted. Another inheritance quirk. Remus had on stylish sunglasses, which he was only allowed to do around Harry because of his heightened senses. Ron was waving his arms around, gesticulating wildly, and—astonishingly—managing to keep his voice down. Oh, wait, Hermione spotted the slight shimmer of a muffling spell and winced for Remus's ears. Never mind, Harry was just smart enough to put up a ward. She wondered belatedly why she ever thought Ron could manage to be quiet.
Harry himself was glowing a bit, she noted, a colder blue color which she knew from experience would only get darker with his anger. Well, they'd have to do something about that soon, he was supposed to be happy at his birthday party, after all. For now, she'd settle for dragging them out of their work discussion and into the cheer the rest of the house exuded.
Sometime later, Hermione had delivered most of her small gifts from around the world, aside from those for Nellive and Harry, which she left on the gift table, and those for the missing parties. Food was laid out on tables under a tent in the back yard, and Molly went inside to drag everyone out for lunch. Hermione was tasked with finding the Twins and their fiancé, one Draco Malfoy.
Standing at the bottom of the stairs, Hermione hollered up them, "FOOD!" And then proceeded to get out of the way. Just in time, too, as in the next two seconds, it seemed as though she'd summoned a herd of elephants, though she could swear it was only Draco and the Twins up there.
Tumbling into a pile at the base of the steps, the Twins untangled themselves carefully while Draco followed them down sedately. "Hello Hermione."
"Hello Draco." It had taken a while for the rest of the family (cough Ron cough) to fully accept the Twin's choice, but it had worked out eventually, Molly stating at a family dinner that she was simply glad the Twins had found someone, and that was that. Hermione and Draco had put aside their previous animosity for the Twin's sake, and since then found similar interests shared between them.
"I have gifts for you three, remind me later," turning to the Twins, Hermione said, "for now though—"
"You said—," interrupted one twin.
"—there was food?" Finished the other.
Hermione suppressed a snigger; the Twins ears had practically perked up at the mention of food, like a pair of puppies. Draco had no such reservations, snickering at them as Hermione confirmed with a nod and they took off to find the aforementioned deliciousness.
Hermione and Draco followed them more slowly, walking out into the bright pink sun, oh wait that was Harry again—"Harry," called Hermione, "lights."
Ah, there was the bright sun. Simply glorious. Surrounded by family and friends, Hermione felt content. After lunch, Molly announced presents, a game, then cake. This had been the tradition for years now, and they weren't about to break it.
Both Harry and Neville got plenty of thoughtful gifts, but Harry sort of tuned them out, giving the obligatory 'thank you's and 'I love it's, unable to wait to give his to Neville. He was glowing again, but he didn't even try to tone it down and no one told him to, so he was happy.
When the time came, Harry was practically bouncing in his seat, one leg tucked under him comfortably and a huge grin on his face. "I have a gift for you too, Nev!"
"Oh?" Asked Neville, curious as to what could excite his friend so.
"Yes!" Cried Harry, "Look! A few months ago I finally mastered this bit of my inheritance, you can just leave it hanging, or put it in lanterns—" on the other side of Harry, there was a pronounced thunk as Hermione's forehead met the tablecloth, "—well, just look!"
Harry held out his hands, and in them formed a small ball of red light, or more like glowing red mist, swirling and shifting. Half the people at the table leaned towards it unconsciously, before shaking their heads and pulling away from the spell of Harry's gift. Neville was not one of the people affected by it, only watching it, awed.
"Hold out your hand," instructed Harry. Neville did so, and Harry placed the ball of light on his palm carefully and let go.
Neville stared in wonder at the little ball of light, rolling it gently around his palm and finally looking back up at Harry. "I—thank you, thank you so much. This, this is amazing!"
Now a Harry looked slightly uncomfortable under the praise, rubbing at the back of his neck nervously, "Um, well, I just thought—I mean, you were saying it's hard to find light sources that don't disturb your plants at night, so I though maybe if they didn't bother plants in the wild, it wouldn't affect those in your green houses? You could go in there at night and not bother them, I guess."
Harry helped as he was suddenly enveloped in two hugs, one from Hermione behind him—"That's so thoughtful, Harry,"—and one from Neville—"This is perfect Harry, thank you!"
After a moment, Harry relaxed and grinned, "No problem Nev, I can make as many as you want!"
Molly smiled at the picture. It was good to have those she considered her own children so happy. Now, though, it was time for a game.
"It's Harry's turn to pick a game, Neville did last year," said Ginny, thinking along the same lines as her mother.
A wicked grin spread across Harry's lips at that. "Hide and go seek." He announced.
Next to him, Hermione's head hit the table again. Whenever people play hide and go seek with Harry, it took hours because players were forever getting lost and going missing. Each time it happened, she knew it was Harry's fault.
But that's what she got, she supposed, for marrying a man whose creature inheritance gave him traits of a Hinkypunk.
a/n: and that's it. Hope you enjoyed, and no, you really don't want to know how he ended up with that particular inheritance. Nor do I, actually, now that I think about it. Anywho, fluff and birthdays, to celebrate my own. Hoorah.