Harry
"Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Harry. Happy birthday to you!" Everyone inside the Potter family home's dining room finished singing in unison. Notably Sirius and Alina had gone just about as far off key as physically possible it seemed towards the end. Everyone their laughed and exchanged hugs and smiles as his birthday song ended.
"Happy birthday Harry!" his mother cried, giving him another warm hug.
"Thanks mother," he replied, returning her hug. His mom was all about birthdays and if he didn't average at least four hugs an hour today he would be in trouble, regardless of if it was his birthday or not.
"Alright, alright, calm down! Harry gets the first piece!" his father shouted, a large knife waving around in his hands as he was fighting off Sirius, Alina, and Marik with a paper plate as they all poked at his birthday cake with their forks like a pack of hungry wolves. That was a battle his father was bound to lose, especially considering how much Marik and Alina loved their sweets.
All of his friends and family had gathered together at his family's home today to celebrate his fourteenth birthday, even though his real birthday wasn't actually for another week. Today was one of the few days that everyone had been able to get together under the same roof over the summer, which in his opinion had really sucked. Today however, he couldn't help but smile as he watched everyone in the room smiling and conversing amongst each other. He always missed having times like these when he was with everyone close to him and made sure to cherish them whenever they did happen.
"Here Harry. Happy birthday again!" Hermione said as she handed him a slice of cake. Hermione sat down next to him at the dining room table and began to dive into her own slice.
"Thanks Hermione." He took the plate from her and immediately began scarfing down the cake. Nothing beat one of his mother's homemade cakes, not even the house elves at Hogwarts stood a chance.
As good as the cake was, it wasn't nearly as good as getting to see his friends was. He knew how busy they all were with getting ready for their next year at Hogwarts, but was glad that everyone had managed to find the time in their busy summer schedules to come hang out with him for the day. To be honest he had started to get a little depressed from having to be alone so much over the summer.
He had invited his friends to come over multiple times over the summer so far, but up until today it had been impossible to get anyone over. Outside of the dueling tournament, today had been the only day he had actually physically managed to see all of his friends over the summer. Hermione's family felt that they didn't get enough time with her over the school year and as a result did not let Hermione out of their reach much during the summer. Along with that, Hermione had also begun to dive head first into her spell creation time magic. From all of the letters the two of them had exchanged, he knew that practically every free minute Hermione had was being spent trying to develop and research potential new spells.
Harry certainly understood how much time spell creations work took, having watched Marik do it with his shadow magic for three years now, assisting Alina with her white light magic, and spending a lot of his own time creating his wing magic. His work on his wing magic spell creations alone had taken up half of his summer so far. Even after he finishing one of the wings at the end of the school year, developing the magic and formulas needed for summoning a second wing was even more complex, let alone being able to summon both at the same time. So it was understandable how busy Hermione was over the summer. As selfish as it may be, he was glad that she was not doing any work today though and was spending time with him.
He and Hermione certainly weren't the only two busy people this summer though. It had been impossible to get Marik to come over in between all of his dueling training sessions with Kingsley and dates with Luna. Though he was a little envious that Luna was getting to hangout with Marik so much over the summer and Harry was stuck alone with his books, he was glad that his friend seemed to still be happy with Luna. From what Marik told it him it seemed that he and Luna had really started to grow a lot closer over the summer, and Marik seemed to really like Luna a lot now. After all that had happened with Marik recently Harry was certainly ecstatic to hear that he was doing well and seemed to be happy. Again, though, today he was happy that Marik was not going on another date with Luna and had managed to make it here.
It had been difficult to even see his cousin Alina this summer. Ever since her loss in the summer dueling tournament Alina had kept to herself. Harry had exchanged letters with her a few times since then and it seemed like she had taken the loss quite hard, and was currently working, in her own words, "her ass off to make sure it never happened again."
Alina was also feeling the same pressure that he, Hermione, and Marik had felt over their last summer. Every student going into their third year was told how it was the toughest year yet, and that it was the year that things truly began to get difficult at Hogwarts. Alina knew from first hand experience from watching Hermione, Marik, and himself all last year that this was no lie and was very much the case. So Alina had been spending all of her summer lost in her school books, research, and some of their old third year notes trying to get ready for her third year. Today, though, Alina didn't look worried about her third year at all. Today it just looked like all she was worried about getting a bigger slice of cake than her father and Marik.
"What are you smiling so much for?" Hermione asked him, sprouting a smile of her own.
"I'm just happy that everyone was able to come. I was missing you and everyone else," he answered, feeling a little embarrassed.
"Aren't you just the cutest?" Alina said sarcastically as she grabbed a seat near him and Hermione.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, shut up and eat your cake Alina!" he replied, rolling his eyes at her.
"Gladly!" Alina said, not needing to be told twice.
"Well I for one missed you and everyone else too. I was about to go crazy in France," Hermione admitted to him, smiling as she ate another slice.
"Yeah, vacation on the beaches of France must be a hard life," Marik joked as he grabbed a seat near them.
"Oh and literally doing nothing over the summer is a hard life?" Hermione argued.
"I spend my entire summer dueling with Kingsley and his auror friends and win a major european dueling tournament for the third year straight and she calls it nothing!" Marik said, shaking his head in disbelief.
"No talking about the tournament!" Alina shouted, stuffing a piece of cake into Marik's mouth to shut him up.
"I'm sorry that we haven't been able to get together more, you know how my parents are about spending more time with them over the summer." Hermione said apologetically.
"It's no biggie. I'm just being selfish. I get practically ten months with you over the year so I guess your parents should get some time with you too," he replied. Honestly though he still felt like ten months wasn't even enough, he wanted thirteen months a year with Hermione and the rest of his friends.
"What are you doing on Wednesday Harry?" Marik asked. It seemed he had finished chewing all of the cake that had been forced down his throat moments ago by Alina.
"Just sitting in my living room reading probably, why?" he answered.
"Well Kingsley was going to take me to an auror dueling practice tournament up in Liverpool. If you want I can ask him if you can come too," Marik replied.
"Really? That would be awesome! Yeah please do," he said, excited at the prospect of getting to get out of his house and hangout with Marik. Harry was so used to spending all of his classes with Marik and the Slytherins along with their lunch breaks at school that it still felt odd not hanging out with him everyday.
"Why do the aurors having dueling tournaments?" Hermione asked Marik. Alina seemed to cringe at the word dueling.
"Kingsley says it's mainly just a way for everyone to compete and blow off some steam in a competitive way. A lot of the aurors make bets with one another and have a lot of fun with it. Even with all the goofing off and betting that happens though Kingsley said everyone there is no joke when it comes to dueling and will be something good to watch and take notes on," Marik answered, stuffing another bite of cake into his mouth.
"I'm jealous. I want to go watch!" Hermione said pouting.
"Well count me in. I'll ask my parents later, just let me know what Kingsley says," Harry told Marik. Watching aurors duel did sound interesting. Becoming an auror was a pretty tough feat, so most of them had to be pretty great duelists.
"Enough about dueling! Open your presents already Harry. I can't hold out much longer!" Alina ordered him. She seemed more excited to see what was in his gifts were than he was.
It came as no surprise to him that Alina still didn't want to discuss dueling or the summer tournament. Following her defeat to Durmstrang's champion Alina had avoided the topic like a plague. He knew that losing was tough on Alina, Hell she got furious when she lost duels in their practice sessions during the school year, but overall she had put up a really good fight in the duel; Durmstrang's champion had just put up a little better fight.
While Alina had been defeated Marik had again shined bright in the tournament this summer. Beauxbaton's champion for the third straight year, Fleur Delacour, had come into this year's tournament miles stronger than she had in the past years. Even Hermione admitted that she was unsure if she could have managed to beat Fleur again this year. Marik though handled his one duel with her with what looked like ease. Though, even if the duel had been a challenge there was no way in Hell Marik would ever admit it.
After demolishing her first two opponents easily Fleur was put on the defensive throughout her entire duel with Marik. Marik came right out of the gates firing all sorts of incredible new spells that he had learned and been practicing over the summer. Marik had already been good at dueling, however, after a summer of practicing with Kingsley and aurors Marik had become even better at dueling.
At first it honestly looked like he had been toying with Fleur, firing off just enough weak offensive spells to keep Fleur on her toes. However, in the blink of an eye Marik had defeated Fleur with one of the scariest and quickest spell chains Harry had ever seen. It still seemed that Kingsley thought Marik could get better though based off that he was still taking Marik to watch other duels and was still putting Marik through harsh training over the summer. Kingsley's summer workouts sounded rough but the more spells Marik learned over the summer with Kingsley was more spells that Harry got to learn from Marik once the school year started.
"Okay, okay, calm down! Mother!" he replied to Alina before calling out to his mother. "Alina is going to kill me if I don't open my presents soon, so can I start?" he asked his mother.
"Of course Harry, go ahead," his mother answered him with a warm smile as she snapped a photo of him and his friends at the table. Harry's eyes took a second to adjust after being blinded by the camera's flash.
"Open mine first Harry!" Alina commanded, handing him two small packages. He opened up the first package to reveal a self-cleaning owl cage enchanted device, which with it he would never have to clean Hedwig's cage again. "You don't have one already do you? I couldn't remember if you did or not but saw it and thought it was cool."
"No I don't. I never knew these existed! Hedwig will love this probably more than I will. She is always nipping at me to clean her cage more. Thanks Alina."
"Well open the second one too before you thank me," she told him and he began to open the second gift. When he finished unwrapping the present he saw that it was a gift card to Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. "So I got you that for two reasons, one you have been wearing the same clothes since you were born practically and are in need of some new ones, and two I figured someone would like to look at you in some hot new clothes," Alina explained to him with a wink. Hermione loudly apologized, looking embarrassed next to him, as she dropped her fork to the floor.
"She means me. I would like to look at you in some hot new clothes," Marik quipped sarcastically as he reached his fork over into Alina's plate and stole a bite of her cake without her noticing.
"Well thank you Alina. You will have to take me one day and show me what you think looks good," he told her, thanking her for the two gifts.
"Or, you could take Hermione with you and she could tell you what she thinks looks good," Alina suggested, her grin this time looking a little mischievous. Again, Hermione next to him dropped her fork and apologized loudly.
"Here Harry," Marik said, breaking his concentration from the struggling Hermione trying still to pick up her fork as he handed him a gift. After thanking his friend, he opened up Marik's gift.
Marik had gifted him with a very eloquent wand holster. It was made with high grade materials and resembled the one he had seen aurors wear and an even newer version than his father's old auror holster. Wand holsters as nice as this one was were certainly expensive. Unlike the normal auror blue that he was used to seeing this holster had been dyed gold and crimson, Gryffindor colors.
"It is the same new model that the aurors use. Kingsley gave me two of them but that one was ugly Gryffindor colors so I figured you would like it more. I carved a few runes into it too," Marik told him and sure enough as he turned the holster around in his hand he could see rune markings on it, though, he had no idea what any of the rune designs meant or did yet.
"What are the runes for?" he asked Marik, examining the holster more closely in his hands.
"One is a stealth charm, so the common person won't be able to see it when you are wearing it. Detectors can still pick it up though and if any decent wizard or witch stares at it long enough they will be able to make it out. The other two are fairly simple runes and you can add more advanced runes in their place if you want. One is just a quickdraw enchant that makes it snap into your hand quicker, so whenever you need your wand it is almost instantaneous, and the other is anti-rash charm," Marik answered him smiling at the last part.
"Anti rash charm?" Hermione asked Marik. Harry was wondering the same thing.
"Kingsley said a lot of the new recruits get rashes from the material and aren't used to having something like a holster rub against their skin twenty-four seven. I learned the hard way," Marik said, pulling up the sleeve of his right arm revealing a patch of irritated skin on his wrist. He, Hermione, and Alina laughed at the sight.
"Well thank you Marik for the gift, and for looking out for my health," he said still laughing. It really was a cool gift that would come in handy, he would certainly put it to good use.
"I'm jealous of that! Tell Kingsley to get me one too!" Alina said as she stole the wand holster out from his hands and started putting it on to test out.
"Okay Harry, my turn," Hermione said as she handed him a gift. He noted her fork had found its way back to the table.
He took the medium sized package from her and slowly opened it. He had learned from experience that Hermione hated when people ripped her wrapping paper up like an animal. As he got to the contents of the package he was still unsure of exactly what it was as he looked it over.
"Err, I'm not exactly sure what I'm looking at here Hermione."
"It is a pocket pensieve Harry. It isn't as good as a normal pensieve is, but this one can still store around five or six shorter memories," Hermione explained to him, even without making eye contact with her he could feel that she was nervous that he did not like the gift.
"This is so cool! I thought pensieves were super rare?" he asked her, excited to test the pensive out. He had only read about them a few times and never actually used one before.
"The normal ones that can store infinite memories in them are. These are still fairly rare too though. I found it in a shop in Paris and just had to buy it," Hermione answered him. It was very clear that Hermione had put a lot of time, money, and effort into his present this year. He honestly would have been content if Hermione had given him an old sock, but this was incredible! He would have to step up his present game this year that was for sure.
"This is amazing Hermione, I love it. Thank you so much!" he bent over to her chair next to him and gave her a hug, thanking her for the gift.
"Now you two just need to make a good memory so Harry can watch it over and over again," Marik said playfully to them. Hermione's fork had again found its way to the floor as Alina did a spit take with the water she was drinking before she high-fived Marik across the table. Harry tried to hide his blushing face too.
Altogether, he ended up getting a lot of great gifts for his birthday this year. The Weasley twins, who he had kept up correspondence with over the summer, had sent him a goody bag of some of the beta versions of their newest products for him to test out. Most of them looked a little too dangerous to set off in his house, but Sirius found the twins' forever-farting-ferret to be the funniest thing he had ever seen in his life, or so he claimed.
Speaking of his uncle, Sirius had gifted him with an enchanted shirt to wear once a month when he turned into his animagus form. Apparently the shirt was enchanted to keep off fleas, which Harry had learned very quickly were in fact quite the problem in the animagus world. Remus had thought it was funny to gift Harry a book on Red Caps, which no one else understood why they both found that funny. Even if Red Caps were not the most interesting of creatures, Harry always cherished a good book and thanked Remus multiple times for the gift. He would certainly still read it, err, that is after Hermione returned it to him when she had finished reading it first.
His parents gave him his final gifts of the night. The first was a new brown satchel for school, which thankfully had been enchanted with an assortment of charms that his old bag had not had. His parents also gave him a few of the new books he had asked for during their last trip to Diagon Alley, plus, a large box of chocolate frogs, which everyone knew were his favorite. As he admired the pile of presents before him he thought altogether that this had been one of his better birthdays.
"Happy birthday Harry!" a new voice said from the doorway of the dining room. He turned to see his Professor McGonagall standing there.
"Minerva you made it," his mother said as she walked over to McGonagall and gave her a hug. No matter how many times he saw it, it was still so weird to see them hugging. Professor McGonagall definitely did not look like a hug-me type of person.
"Of course, and I brought some gifts of my own," she said holding out four letters in her hands.
"Are t-t-those?" Hermione shouted. The mood in the room had darkened as they all looked at McGonagall.
"Yes Miss Granger, though I'm afraid looking at the other gifts here I can see that these may not be as good," McGonagall answered with a creepy smile that did not fit her at all.
After a few seconds of silence all four of them burst out from their chairs and grabbed the letters from McGonagall, who just laughed at their reactions. After having to fight each other for a brief moment to get their own letters they all sat down nervously, did a quick prayer to the magic gods, and opened up their letters.
Harry Potter,
Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry
Third year End of Term Grade Report
Class Grade Class Rank
History of Magic: O 2
Charms: O 2
Transfiguration: M 1
Potions: O 3
Dark Arts: O 2
Herbology: O 5
Spell Creation: O 3
Care of Magical Creatures M 1
Astronomy M 1
Overall Student Rank: 2
Based off your grade report you will be allowed to continue your education at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, as well as advance to Fourth year courses in all of your previous classes. You will also receive special recognition during the Opening Ceremony due to your performance, grades, and class ranking. Further information will be given to you during the opening ceremony. Well done on again earning outstanding marks to go along with an outstanding rank.
Your current Fourth year class schedule can be found on the second paper in this letter. A list of all the required third year supplies has also been added. I and the rest of the Hogwarts staff congratulate you and look forward to seeing you again for your fourth year.
P.s.
Great job Harry. I am proud of the work I have seen you put in, and even prouder of the magic and results you have achieved. I hope you continue to impress.
Your Head of House,
Minerva McGonagall
"Well?" his mother asked him, breaking the silence in the room.
He lifted his head up from his letter to look at her. Along the way he saw that his friends' faces all looked much like his. Hermione's skin was pale and her eyes were wide, as if she was seeing a ghost, Alina was shaking, and Marik looked like he was about to explode. He handed his mother the letter, still rendered speechless. He had somehow managed to get straight 'O' and 'M' marks. If that wasn't unbelievable enough he had managed to somehow get three 'M' marks and rank two in his year.
"Harry these are amazing! I so proud of you! James look at this." his mother said, giving him a hug as she handed the letter over to his father.
"Wow Harry. I would have dreamed for marks like this when I was in school! Well done son!" his father added, giving him a hug after his mother finished. Harry sat like stone as they both hugged him, still a little in shock.
"Give me that!" Hermione shouted and stole the letter from his father, who was looking at Hermione like she was crazy. Which, when it came to grades, she probably was a little. As Hermione looked over his report he took her sheet from the table and scanned it over.
Hermione Granger,
Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry
Third year End of Term Grade Report
Class Grade Class Rank
History of Magic: M 1
Charms: M 1
Transfiguration: O 2
Potions: M 1
Dark Arts: O 4
Herbology: O 4
Spell Creation: M 1
Care of Magical Creatures O 2
Ancient Runes O 3
Overall Student Rank: 1
"Hermione these marks are incredible! You got number one ranked two years in a row!" he declared as he wrapped her in a hug. Incredible really wasn't a good enough word to describe how good Hermione's grades were, mental would have probably been a better choice of words. Hermione had managed to get ranked in the top five in nine classes, and if that wasn't insane enough on its own she had received the 'M' rank in four out of her nine classes.
"Your grades are amazing too Harry! Congratulations on getting number two, and on three 'M' marks!" Hermione told him, returning his hug.
"You both are dead to me," Marik said, stealing their grade sheets from them and tossing his onto the table. Hermione quickly grabbed it and he looked over her shoulder to take a look at Marik's marks.
Marik Ose,
Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry
Third year End of Term Grade Report
Class Grade Class Rank
History of Magic: O 3
Charms: O 3
Transfiguration: O 3
Potions: O 4
Dark Arts: M 1
Herbology: O 2
Spell Creation: O 2
Ancient Runes M 1
Overall Student Rank: 3
"What are you so mad about Marik? Your marks are great too!" Harry asked Marik, who only looked more pissed as he looked over their marks.
"I lost my number one ranks in charms and in spell creation! Plus I went from number one in my first year to number two my second year now down to number three!" Marik answered, his head landing on the table with a thud as he complained.
"Oh stop it Marik, you did great," Hermione said to him, she didn't look upset at all that she had taken those spots and rankings from Marik.
"And we all knew with Hermione's rocket-scientist-like work on her spell creation project that none of us stood a chance," Harry answered truthfully. Marik just groaned from his spot on the table. After a few seconds they all turned their heads to Alina, who had just been sitting their quietly.
"Cough them up!" Hermione shouted, and Alina quickly passed her letter over to Hermione. He and Marik both looked over her shoulders at Alina's report.
Alina Black,
Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry
Second year End of Term Grade Report
Class Grade Class Rank
History of Magic: O 3
Charms: O 2
Transfiguration: M 1
Potions: O 2
Dark Arts: M 1
Herbology: O 3
Spell Creation: M 1
Overall Student Rank: 1
"Congratulations Alina!" Marik was the first to say.
"Isn't she the best?" Harry heard Sirius add from behind them.
"Two years in a row at the top!" Harry congratulated her.
"I'm proud of you Alina," Hermione said, and Alina was barraged with hugs from all three of them.
"Thanks guys. Although I have heard nonstop from you that third year is where things start to get tough. So this isn't that big a deal," Alina said, sporting a little blush.
"Oh yeah you're screwed this year mate," Marik joked.
"Yeah, kiss your number one spot goodbye,"Hermione added.
'She was such a nice girl too," Harry said, shaking his head.
"That isn't funny you guys!" Alina shouted and proceeded to hit all of them. After recovering from Alina fists, he, Hermione, Marik, and Alina all just started to laugh, and shortly everyone else in the room joined in. It felt good to have everyone back together, laughing and joking with each other. This how things were supposed to be, this was the greatest gift his friends could give him. Happy birthday to him.
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