"SNAPE!" yelled Harry, as soon as he'd recovered from the Apparition. "That slimy, no-good, backstabbing son-of-a-bitch!"
"Calm down, Harry, it's alright," said Remus, placing a placating hand on Harry's shoulder.
"It's NOT alright!" Harry hissed, spinning around with wand drawn, as if checking to see if Snape had followed them. "That bastard is still out there, while Dumbledore's DEAD!"
Harry sunk to his knees, his anger overcome by sadness. He stayed like that for a while, controlling himself, while the rest of the party started removing their Disillusionment charms. Professor McGonagall came over to Harry and removed his charm, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder, before moving away to stand off to the side uncomfortably, she being the only one who knew where Snape's loyalties truly lay.
Soon, Tonks broke the silence.
"So, uh, I take it you saw Snape?" she said to Harry with uncertainty, feeling emotional after the outburst herself.
"He was right there in front of us as we Apparated away," Remus answered, as Harry didn't seem to hear.
"He apparated just outside the fence, just as we were all leaving," Moody added. "I saw him too," he explained as Remus looked at him with confusion, gesturing to his magical eye.
"I saw him too," added Kingsley. "I guess he was checking to see who Remus was and what he was doing."
At this point, Molly, Ron and Hermione all rushed out.
"We heard yelling," explained Hermione breathlessly. "What happened?"
"Snape happened," said Harry darkly. "He was there in the park. I saw him."
At this Ron scowled, and Hermione looked worried.
"Was anybody hurt?"
"He got there just as we were Apparating away," Remus answered. "Nobody was hurt."
"Oh, good," said Hermione, relieved. She stopped for a moment, as if trying to remember something. Suddenly, it clicked, and she threw herself at Harry.
"Happy Birthday, Harry!" she yelled. "You're finally seventeen!" Harry had no choice but to hug back, and as it happened this helped to lift his mood a little. Soon, however, Ron prised her off him, and Harry couldn't help but give him a grateful smile.
"Happy Birthday mate," said Ron, punching his friend on the arm. It seemed this was as long as Mrs Weasley could hold herself back, because it was at that moment that she swept Harry up in a bone-crushing hug, wishing him a happy birthday and thanking Merlin he was safe.
"Now, that's enough excitement for the night," Mrs Weasley said as she released Harry. "Off to bed with the lot of you. I want you bright-eyed and bushy-tailed tomorrow morning."
Amid several muttered complaints from Ron about how they were all 17 now, they trod off to bed. Harry dumped his things under a second bed in Ron's room, before flopping down. Truth be told, Harry was exhausted, and could only stay up a few minutes chatting to Ron before sleep overtook him.
The next day, Harry woke up to find Ron's bed empty. Putting on his glasses, he glanced at Ron's clock, and found that it was already 10 in the morning. Smelling the scent of pancakes and bacon rising from the kitchen below, he immediately got dressed and hurried down.
He was greeted by a chorus of Happy Birthdays from a very crowded Weasley kitchen. It seemed that it wasn't just the Weasleys who were celebrating Harry's birthday. Everybody who'd accompanied him last night had returned, as well as many others, including Hagrid, who immediately wrapped Harry up in a hug even stronger than Mrs Weasley's, Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood, and, to his slight annoyance, Professor Slughorn, who beamed at Harry when he managed to catch Harry's eye. Fleur was there with Bill, and Gabrielle had decided she wanted to stay in Britain for a while longer, until Bill and Fleur left on their honeymoon, so she was included in the celebrations.
Harry was stunned. He knew the Weasleys wouldn't be able to resist throwing him a celebration, and Ron had told him as much, but he wasn't expecting such a large turnout. He moved around the room, thanking everybody for coming as they congratulated him. When he got to Ginny, things became awkward. She simply muttered "Happy Birthday" before backing away and letting somebody else congratulate him.
Soon, everybody took a seat outside for a huge birthday breakfast, courtesy of Mrs Weasley. She had prepared pancakes, bacon, sausages, eggs, fried tomatoes, fresh fruit, fruit tarts, freshly squeezed pumpkin and fruit juices, and loads more. Ron, as was his tendency, piled mountain upon mountain of food onto his plate, eating is almost as quickly as he piled it. Harry couldn't help but laugh at Hermione's look of fond disgust as Ron picked up a sausage, wrapped it in bacon, and shoved it in his mouth, while Fred and George egged him on.
Eventually, everybody had eaten their fill. It was at this point that, to Harry's immense embarrassment, Mrs Weasley announced it was present time. She and Hermione grabbed a protesting Harry and firmly dragged him inside to the living room, setting him on the couch and sitting either side of him, while the rest of the party trailed in behind them, laughing at Harry's obvious embarrassment.
Harry worked through the mountain of presents as quickly as he could without seeming rude, but he really wasn't enjoying all the attention being centred on him. He tried at least to make each present about the person who gave it to him, rather than himself, but still, this was the equivalent of torture for the shy teen. From Kingsley, he received a trunk similar to the trunk belonging to Moody which Harry had had personal experience with in his fourth year. Like Moody's, it had seven compartments, one of which was the size of a small room. From Moody, he received a set of two leather straps and a belt, worn in the style of military webbing, with a strap worn diagonally across each shoulder, crossing at his sternum and running straight down the back. It came complete with nine separate, attachable leather compartments of varying sizes, and a wand holster ("to stop you losing a buttock when you put your damn wand in your back pocket," Moody had explained gruffly). From Bill and Fleur he received a pair of soft, pale, pearl-coloured dragon hide gloves, which Fleur had handmade from some dragon hide Bill had bought from Charlie. This same hide, albeit from a different part of the dragon, had also produced a pair of dragon hide boots that Charlie had given him. Charlie explained that when a dragon was killed on the dragon reservation where he worked (which despite their best efforts, did happen very occasionally, given the inherent aggressiveness of most dragons), the senior members of staff there (a member of which Charlie was now considered, having worked there for 7 years) got a share in the dragon hide, blood and organs, and any other useful parts, before the reservation sold the rest. Charlie had taken the hide to a well known Romanian bootmaker, and personal friend of Charlie's, and had the boots made. They came almost up to his knee, and Harry found, as he tried them on, that they were supremely comfortable, and fit his feet perfectly, much to Charlie's relief. The boots were a very different colour from the gloves, and were dark green, purple and gold. The gloves had come from the soft underbelly of the dragon, which happened to be an Antipodean Opaleye, and the boots had come from the tougher hide on the back.
Harry was overwhelmed by the sheer number of gifts he was receiving, and the generosity behind them. He guessed that many of them would be worth a fortune, and he felt honoured that so many people would be willing to spend so much time and/or money on him. And he hadn't even finished opening them all yet!
Horace Slughorn had given him box filled with lots of rare potions ingredients, for his "star pupil". It included powdered graphorn horn, which Hagrid had given the potions Professor, as he'd known how useful it was in potions. There was also an assortment of dragon materials, no doubt bought from Charlie, including some powdered dragon horn, dragon liver and heart, kept fresh with an enchantment, and a very generous phial of dragon blood. Harry also spotted some fluxweed, which Slughorn assured Harry had been picked at full moon, powdered bicorn horn, and boomslang skin, which Hermione later noted are the rarest ingredients of Polyjuice potion. A rather large phial of acromantula venom was also provided, and Harry had a sneaking suspicion it had come from Aragog. Harry was somewhat put-off by the generosity of Slughorn, who when it came down to it really didn't know Harry all that well, and who Harry had never particularly taken to, although the intention behind this generosity became clear when Slughorn returned Harry's "thank you" with a "just remember me when you get to the top, eh?"
McGonagall had, quite predictably, given Harry a book, albeit a very large, and very advanced book, focusing on transfiguration, charms, and practical spells. Remus and Tonks had gotten Harry a present together, and as neither of them was particularly well-off financially speaking, they had decided to give Harry something that had more symbolic value than financial. Their gift was a small marble pendant, fashioned to resemble a full moon. The chain was in fact a thin rope comprised of intertwined lengths of Tonks' hair, varying in colour with red, blue, yellow, orange, green, black and purple. This had been coated in some sort of potion, which ensured strength and produced a sleek outer film on the rope, so that the friction with the skin was almost non-existent.
"This is so that you'll always know we're here for you, Harry," Remus explained, as he gently passed the rope over Harry's head. "You're a wonderful person, and we want you to know that the loyalty of your friends here is proof of that." And with that comment, he gestured to the entire room, to murmurs of agreement. With that, Remus and Tonks took Harry in a tight embrace, and Harry struggled not to cry as he was supported by his last living link to his parents, and the Auror who was always there to lend a laugh and a wink when times got tough.
From Neville, Harry received a mimbulus mimbletonia potted plant. Luna had given Harry some sort of amulet, which she claimed was a lucky charm, and was designed to protect the holder. Although Harry didn't believe in it for a second, he knew Luna did, and he was touched. From Fred and George, he got a very large supply of WWW products, as well as a significant portion of shares in the company, which Fred and George justified by pointing out that the store wouldn't be up and running if it wasn't for Harry's Triwizard earnings, which he'd donated to them after fourth year. Harry, somewhat reluctant, but grateful all the same, accepted, and with an overly ceremonious flourish from the Weasley twins, the relevant documents were signed. Ginny, still obviously angry at Harry, had given him a pack of Puking Pastilles, and Ron had a hard time hiding a snigger as Harry cast a nervous glance Ginny's way. Ron and Hermione had only given him fairly small gifts, as their budgets had been low. Ron had given him a subscription to a popular Quidditch magazine, and Hermione had given him a magical diary which conveniently compiled references to his entries into an index at the front, as he wrote in it. The trio knew that Ron and Hermione's real presents were their help, support, presence, and most importantly of all, friendship, as Harry sought out the Horcruxes, but Harry was touched by the gifts all the same.
His next present was from Hagrid. He was a little bit nervous as he picked it up, knowing Hagrid's penchant for the dangerous, but he found the bulky package quite light and flexible as he held it, and guessed it must be some other item of clothing.
"It's from me and Grawpy," explained Hagrid as Harry tore open the wrapping. Held within was a long-sleeved, greyish-purple garment, made of some half-inch thick, leathery but very light-weight material. "It's graphorn hide." As he said this, Professor McGonagall gasped and looked at Hagrid in shock, and Kingsley shot Hagrid a look of deep respect. "Grawpy and I was visiting the giants in the mountains over summer. The two of us, an' an old friend of his, caught this graphorn that'd been causing a nearby village some trouble. Not that giants usually care about protectin' us humans, but I convinced Grawpy's friend to help us. We brought it down, gave the horn to Horace seein's how valuable it is and all (So that's where the powdered graphorn horn came from, thought Harry), and I made yeh that with some of the hide. Kept the rest for me own uses, o' course," he said with a cheeky grin.
"Graphorns are very dangerous, Hagrid," said Kingsley, clearly impressed. "I take it you're alright then?"
"Yeh, a graphorn's no match for two and a half giants," he said with an embarrassed chuckle. "Anyway, graphorn hide is real tough, and resists magic like yeh wouldn't believe. Better than dragon hide, even! It'll protect yeh against most spells if you wear it under your shirt, except the Killing Curse o' course. It won' be much use against the likes o' You-Know-Who, mind, but it should stand up to anything your typical Death Eater might throw at you."
"Wow, Hagrid, thanks! It's great! Tell Grawp I said thanks as well," said Harry, fondly remembering the friendly, if not gentle, giant.
"It's a little bit stiff still," said Hagrid apologetically. "I worked the hide mehself, but it's hard work, and I couldn't quite get it fully soft in time, but if yeh wear it in it'll get there eventually. It's also mighty comfortable. I don' know what it is, but it hardly traps heat at all. O' course, that aint so great when it's cold, but yeh can always chuck on some more clothes when yeh need 'em"
"I'll wear it whenever I go out, Hagrid," Harry promised, which brought a tremendously happy smile to Hagrid's face.
Finally, it got to Mr and Mrs Weasley. He opened his present from Arthur first. He pulled from the brown wrapping paper a long, hooded travelling coat of a very hard to place colour. Harry's eyes couldn't really decide which colour it was. It wasn't black, white or grey, but it wasn't any particular colour either. Harry eventually started thinking of it as an off-grey (whatever that was).
"That coat will help hide, or I suppose camouflage you," explained Arthur. "Of course, it's no Invisibility Cloak, but it does a lot to deflect attention away from the wearer. It won't hide you from anybody that's actually looking for you, but I reckon you could walk down Diagon Alley with it and you wouldn't get noticed. It's great when you need to interact normally with certain people without standing out to others, something difficult to do when ducking in and out of your Cloak, I'd imagine. It's been in the Weasley family for years, but none of us have ever had a use for it. I had the feeling you'd need all the help you can get avoiding attention."
"Thanks, Mr Weasley," said Harry, appreciating how Arthur understood his need for privacy, not just for safety, but for his own sanity. "I dare say I'll get a good bit of use out of it before long," he commented, only half-jokingly.
To finish things off, Mrs Weasley handed Harry her present to him. He opened it to find a red, hand-knitted jumper, with a small gold H in the top-left corner. However, as he lifted up the jumper, two much smaller, heavier items dropped into his lap. He picked up the first one, which was a long, flat, slender length of gold, about the size of Harry's wand, with a hoop at one end and his name on the other. With a confused glance at Ron, who merely smiled mysteriously, and Mrs Weasley, who looked worried he might not like it, he simply smiled back, trying to figure out what it was. He realised when he looked at the other object that had fallen out. A wristwatch, with a light leather band, but it wasn't any normal watch. His eyes began to tear up as he noticed the eight hands, each with a different Weasley's initials (except for Percy). Every hand was pointed to mortal peril, just like the grandfather clock just outside in the kitchen. Picking up the gold rod with his name on it, he realised that this was his own hand for that very clock. Brushing away tears, he turned and gave Mrs Weasley a huge hug. The Weasleys had always been his family. This gesture simply proved it.
"Thank you, Mrs Weasley," he breathed into her shoulder. Extracting himself from her embrace, he said, "Thanks, all of you. Really, this is… amazing."
Harry's eyes caught Ginny's, and the expression he saw on her face was unplacable. He held her gaze for a few moments, before she turned away. Damn, he thought, I really need to sort this out.
"Wow," Harry said to the room at large, looking over all his gifts. "I don't really know what to say except thanks. They're all fantastic. And I think I'll be able to put a lot of them to good use against Voldemort."
There was a somewhat sombre mood within the room as Harry said this, as everybody took in just how many of the gifts Harry had received were given in order to help him fight, or at least, survive. Harry had always known that's all he wanted. He had said as much when speaking with Dumbledore's portrait, but it wasn't until now that the true burden that lay on Harry's shoulders was sinking in with his friends.
Before too long, the sombre mood was broken as a voice many of those in the room had not heard for a long while, and had not expected to hear again, broke in.
"Molly, I hate to butt in, but I believe Harry has one more gift you forgot to give him," said the voice of Dumbledore, from a pocket-sized portrait on the mantelpiece.
"Oh, Dumbledore, I'm sorry! I forgot. Since you weren't wrapped, and all," she explained quickly, before grabbing the small frame.
"Here, Harry," Mrs Weasley said, handing the frame to Harry. "He insisted we didn't wrap him, since he wanted to see what presents you got."
Harry simply stared as Dumbledore's face smiled back at him.
"Now, Harry, you can chat to me any time you like, no matter where you are, so long as you carry that with you. I won't be here all the time; I've had a portrait installed in the Ministry which I plan on spending a fair bit of time in, but if you ever need to chat, just call!"
"Thank you, Professor," Harry said, dumbstruck. He couldn't believe he had his own talking portrait of Dumbledore to carry with him. Suddenly, he didn't feel so abandoned by his old Headmaster, and it lifted from Harry a weight he hadn't been aware he'd been carrying.
"I actually had another present arranged for you," explained Dumbledore's portrait apologetically, "but unfortunately it's not quite ready yet, so this will do in the meantime. I'll let you know as soon as it's done!"
"Don't worry Professor, it's brilliant, really," assured Harry. The portrait merely smiled mysteriously.
Finally, Mrs Weasley called them all to lunch. She'd had lunch cooking itself all the while, though she had had to duck out of the room every ten minutes or so to check on things. Several people had to excuse themselves at this point, including Kingsley and Tonks, who had Auror business, but aside from that, lunch was as grand an affair as breakfast. Eventually full to the brim, after quite a massive birthday cake in the shape of a Snitch, the celebrations began to wind down, and people began to leave. Only Remus and Hagrid were able to stay until dinner, and after that even they had to leave. The party, while fantastic, had been exhausting for Harry, and it was only 9 when he found himself trudging off to bed. He was asleep before his head hit the pillow.