Chapter 29: Make-Up Birthdays for Harry

Hermione's arms were starting to ache from all the whumping and the whisking of this cake batter in the mixing bowl. She grunted and put a little more elbow grease into the effort, even though said elbows were nearly buried in flour.

It was the afternoon of July 31st – the 19th birthday of her and her boyfriend's best mate. Harry and the Weasleys would be over at any moment for a proper party…. which was also doubling as a house christening for her and Ron's new little flat in Chelmsford.

She and Ron had gone into together on the little place, putting up the ninety quid up front; they intended to split the rent between them. The flat wasn't exactly the most furnished, but between two, unmarried people who were just starting out in their respective careers, it would have to do. It heartened Hermione, and also made her heart twinge, to see how Ron was taking their new home together, run-down as it was (though in the process of being fixed up), all in stride. It made Hermione realize just how much Ron and his family had gone without when he was growing up. How poor the Weasleys had really been…. and yet from how close and happy the brood was, it was a wonder how neither Ron nor any of his siblings had seemed to know it.

She and Ron had moved put down the first months' rent and moved in only a couple of weeks ago. Between the cooking and the cleaning to make their own little love nest presentable, Hermione was stressed, to say the least. Percy and Audrey's flat had looked simply lovely, at their housewarming some months back, and the latest Mr. and Mrs. Weasley to be married weren't paying much more than she and Ron were now.

Hermione could hear Ron in the sitting area next room over, cleaning as she had instructed him. She had to smile tiredly to herself. Well, at least they were clear about equity in performance of the household duties.

Turning back to this stubborn cake batter, she heard her lover's heavy tread enter their kitchen, but she didn't glance up. Next moment, she shivered as a pair of lips began to press kisses into the hollow of her throat, and she wiggled, gasping.

"Ron…. We…. we haven't the time…." Though even in they did, she knew damn bloody well that they had never gone any further than performing oral sex on each other.

"Has anyone ever told you…. that you look sexy, being all domestic?"

In any other context that didn't involve his hands roaming over her, she would have swatted him for such cheek. As it was, Hermione let her breath hitch, even as Ron spun her around and amorously pulled her into his arms. His calloused and strong hands moved to her waist and then shifted lower, heavily caressing the smart curve of her bum through her jeans – first one arse cheek, and then the other.

"N-never…." Hermione stammered, her brown eyes growing heavy and lidded with want, in spite of herself.

Ron's grin was positively saucy. "What, never?"

Hermione bit her lip. "Well…. hardly ever, but that isn't ruddy the point, is it. I….. Ooooh….." She bore her neck to him, granting him access to lather his tongue along her pulse point. Her moan quickly turned into a sharp gasp, and then she cried out as Ron's palm covetously gripped the underside of her thigh and hiked her leg up, so that it now curled almost of its own accord about his torso, hooking at the back of the knee.

The couple embraced and, against Hermione's better judgment, momentarily lost themselves in a passionate snog. Hermione whimpered as she could feel Ron's clear desire for her, from where his hips now yearningly pressed against hers.

"Ron, I….. Mmmmm…. We…. we can't….. not till we're mar-Mmmmmm….. Hmmmm… till we're married….."

Ron danced his lips along her cheeks, her eyelids, her nose, before going in for a soft peck on her mouth once more, but he eventually let up. "You're right," he sighed. "It wouldn't do for the birthday boy to walk in on us necking, and think that was his present."

"A birthday boy who might be here any moment!" Hermione cried. She twisted out of her lover's embrace and began thumping the cake batter again, until she decided it was mixed satisfactorily enough for her to pour the lot into a saucepan and load it into their simple oven. The beautiful witch shook her head. "Honestly, our first time hosting as a couple, and in our own place besides, and it has to be our best mate's birthday!"

"Our Harry wouldn't care if we gave him a burnt lump to eat!" Ron waved away. At his girlfriend's prissy, almost offended look, he diplomatically cleared his throat. "Right. Sorry. Not….. not that you're going to let this cake burn, mind."

Hermione lifted an eyebrow. "I let plenty of meals apparently burn when we were on the hunt, for how many times you told me so."

Ron hung his head. "I am right sorry about that. I don't intend to make it a catchall excuse, but I was under the influence of that infernal locket at the time. It…. did things to my temper."

Hermione took pity on him, enough to throw him a bone. "Well, if it makes you feel any better, Harry got rather short with me one afternoon while we were outside the tent, and he was wearing the locket. He yelled at me. I made him take it off, almost on a hunch." She studied him sadly, sympathetically. "I just wish I had been more vigilant with you….."

Ron shook his head. "Don't blame yourself, love. The locket may have been whispering right mad stuff into my head, but the things it urged me to do, I still did." He quietly took his lover's hands in his. "Which brings me to something I wanted to ask you."

Hermione blinked. "Ronald, sweetheart, you know you can ask me anything…."

"You invited your parents to come by for the party, right?"

"Yeah, Dad was all insistent he see our new place. Why?"

Ron exhaled through his nose, rubbing the back of his neck. "Well….. remember how I promised your dad how I would never hurt you, that day we stopped round for tea, and he and your mum saw your scars from…. the Manor?"

Hermione nodded leerily. "Yes….."

"Well….. I've already right broken that promise to him, haven't I? I hurt you when I left you and Harry, walked out on you during the Hunt." His blue eyes searched her brown ones. "Unless…. They already know because you told them."

Hermione shook her head. "I told them some things about the Hunt…." She bit her lip to hide an almost embarrassed smile. "I think Dad acted like such a cad towards you and Harry for all those months once he heard how I had been shacking up with you two grown boys in a tent in the woods day after day…."

Ron chuckled awkwardly, flushing.

"…. But I didn't go into such granular detail. He…. He and Mum don't know…. I didn't tell them how you left me." She peered into his face, searching. "Do you want me to tell them?"

"I reckon I had just assumed you already had, once we got their memories back in Australia, but seeing as you haven't….." Hermione was expecting him to tell her to just leave it.

So she was surprised and even almost proud, in a way, when Ron said: "If anyone is going to tell them, I should be the one to do it."

She blinked at him rapidly, her brown eyes sparkling, confused. "….. Why…..?"

"If your dad already trusts me enough with you that he'd give us our blessing to move in together, well then…. I reckon I can only gain so much more trust with him if I'm completely honest." An expression of fear flashed across the ginger's face. "Unless I'm wrong, and he decides to deck me, and lock you away in your childhood bedroom again."

Hermione giggled, stepping into him and winding her arms about his waist. She rested her chin on his chest, beaming up at him.

"To the contrary…. even if he should get a little upset, he'll respect you that much more for willingly airing out your own dirty laundry. Besides…." She shrugged. "I already forgave you, for all of it."

"Hermione, love…"

"For all of it: Lavender, the locket, leaving me. All of it. Who's to say my Dad won't forgive you too?"

Ron beamed down at her dopily; dipping his head, he kissed her lightly on the lips. "I bloody love you."

"I love you too…." Hermione grinned, as she sultrily looped her arms about his neck, brown orbs twinkling with mischief. "Now, deep breath: and….."

Ron and Hermione embraced and sank into a long snog. To her amusement, it was Ron who pulled up for air first. "Mmm….. Wait. Who's watching the oven? What about the cake….?"

Hermione threw back her head and laughed musically. "You and your stomach! And sod the cake; if I have to serve it to the birthday boy charred and burnt…." He didn't let her finish, yanking her close and back in for another long make-out session.

They were so lost in the kissing that neither one of them noticed someone walk in on them until said someone cleared his throat.

Ron and Hermione abruptly broke apart, their arms still around each other and looking scandalized at being caught in the act.

"Evening…" Harry Potter was trying and failing not to smirk with amusement.

Licking her lips, Hermione stepped out of her boyfriend's arms and ran to embrace her best mate, smile beaming. "Happy Birthday, Harry!"

"You didn't need to make all this fuss for me…."

"Nonsense! We've missed your last two birthdays already! If we don't make them up, we'll always be in arrears!"

Harry smiled down at his best girl softly. He had to recall with amusement last year, after the dueling scrimmage with those two Death Eaters in the café. He and his friends had been pretty shaken up, and yet all Hermione could think about was not the Memory Charms she had just performed on two downed enemy combatants, but the fact that she and Ginny had forgotten Harry's birthday. She'd bemoaned with dismay how they were going to bake him a cake and everything!

Harry sniffed, following his nose to the oven where it smelled like a cake was…. Ah, well. Better late than never.

"Just let yourself in, did you?" Ron grinned teasingly, squirting around Hermione to give his best mate a handshake.

"Well, I wouldn't have if the door hadn't been unlocked. Do you know that George once caught me and Ginny snogging just like that in your mum's kitchen?" He smirked at the scowl this earned from Ron. Hermione's entire face bloomed pink.

The beeping from the oven mercifully distracted her. "The cake!" It was pulled out just in time. Glancing back to the birthday boy, Hermione bit her lip.

"Ohhh….. I was going to frost it….!"

"Well, as long as I'm here…. allow me to help?" Harry grinned at her. She nodded appreciatively.

"I'll get some plates…." Ron offered. There was a Ding Dong just as he was turning away towards the cupboards. "And the door, apparently, even though it's unlocked…. IT'S OPEN!"

"Ron!" Hermione scolded, half-stern, half-amused. "Ruddy go and answer it! It could be my parents!"

Ron acceded, though it only turned out to be Percy and Audrey, with Fleur and George right behind them.

"Happy Birthday, Harry," Audrey bubbled, hugging him tightly as she pressed a wrapped parcel into his arms.

Harry smiled. "Audrey, you didn't have to get me anything…."

"Yes, we jolly well did! It's not every day a man turns 19, now, is it?" Harry shook the parcel experimentally. Audrey smirked. "Go on, then! Open it!"

He did so, admiring the spectacles cleaning case. "Thank you…."

"Excellent features, that," Percy leaned around his wife and tapping the case authoritatively. "There's little tweezers and corkscrews and the like to help tighten the arms. Replacement lenses in case one of them pops out….."

"Bonne anniversaire, Harry!" Fleur crooned, dancing around her brother-in-law and sister-in-law where a traffic jam was beginning to form. She kissed Harry on both cheeks. She and Bill presented Harry with a small drawstring pouch of wizard coins.

"Not just any coins either – wizard's collectibles. There are Galleons and Knuts in there dating back to the 14th century, based on the minting…." Bill was explaining.

"But where eez Ginny?" Fleur was moving into the sitting room, appraising Ron and Hermione's flat with a neutral expression.

"She Patronused ahead; gonna be a bit late due to Quidditch practice…."

Ron and Hermione's front door soon became more or less a revolving one. George and Angelina arrived, arm in arm and with a care package of some Weasley Wizard's Wheezes products – fresh off the line, George claimed – in hand. The Grangers were next, David bearing a bottle of wine. Jean immediately dashed into the kitchen to greet her flour-covered daughter, the two women chittering as Hermione gave her mum a tour of the place.

"Ronald….."

"Sir…." Ron greeted Hermione's dad.

"Fancy a drink?"

"Too right!" Ron grinned. "Glad you asked, actually; there's something I've been meaning to speak with you about…." He steered David in the direction of the sitting room, just as Ginny was dashing through the front door with a present and a kiss for her boyfriend.

Glancing past Harry, Ginny's blue eyes seemed undecided whether they should expand or narrow. Ron was speaking to David rather earnestly, but in all the hubbub, neither she nor Harry could make out what they were saying.

"Oh, Merlin….. my baby brother isn't that much of a tosser that he's asking him for Hermione's hand? And on your birthday?"

"No, I should think not!" Harry barked out a laugh at the thought. "She and your brother just moved in together, for pity's sake! I'd say a wedding isn't quite yet in the cards."

Ginny glanced away, her gaze falling on the coat closet just off to their left. Grinning impishly as she checked to make sure no one was watching, the Quidditch rising star dragged her lover into the broom cupboard and closed the door behind them.

"I have your present…." She whispered huskily in his ear. "Just let me ready you for it…."

Harry shivered and had to bite down on his lip to suppress a moan as he felt his lover undoing the zipper at his trousers, edging them down. Dropping to her knees, Ginny allowed her lips to pucker as she reared forward and took him gently in her mouth.

Light-headed and delirious at the sight of her giving him head, bathed in shadow and secrecy, Harry came faster than he would have liked. But it was a good thing too, for Ginny was just tucking him back into his pants when he heard a yell of his name.

"UNCA HARRY!"

Harry and Ginny glanced at each other.

"Stay here and count to ten. I'll take care of it," Harry ordered.

He slipped out of the broom cupboard and barely closed it before he just managed to catch his godson leaping into his arms from those of his grandmother.

"You little bugger….. Isn't it past your bedtime?" Harry chuckled, ruffling Teddy's turquoise.

"Aye, 'tis, but he insisted that he stay up!" Andromeda enveloped both boys into a hug. "Happy Birthday, lad."

Harry smiled as Teddy showed him his birthday present: a picture of Harry on a broomstick that the little lad had apparently drawn himself. "I love it. Cheers, Ted!" Harry hugged the little boy.

Hearing the door behind him squeak open, Harry almost froze as Ginny started to emerge, and then froze.

"Ginevra?" Andromeda frowned, though there was something oddly knowing in her irises. "What are you doing in the broom cupboard?"

Harry thought fast. "I was just helping her hang up her…." He cleared his throat. "May I take your coat, Andromeda?"

From her smirk, he knew he wasn't fooling the old woman, not one bit, but Andromeda nonetheless was off with her coat and handed it gratefully to him.

Hefting Teddy, the nearly caught couple moved towards the kitchen.

"That was lucky….."

"What, being caught by your godson's grandmother? I'm mortified!" Ginny gawped.

"Be bloody thankful it wasn't your mum and dad," Harry grunted, shifting Teddy onto his other hip to set the lad down. The toddler immediately made a beeline for Hermione, his godmother. "Speaking of, where are they?"

"Should be along." Turning to study his expression, Ginny reached up to kiss Harry quietly. "Try to relax. After all, it is your birthday…."

Molly and Arthur arrived, flustered, though thankfully just in time for Hermione to present the completed cake, leading everyone in a chorus of 'Happy Birthday.': "Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday, dear Harry…. Happy Birthday to you!"

Harry, beaming, made a big show of blowing out the candles. As everyone burst into applause, Ron and Mr. Granger slipped back into the kitchen.

"There you are!" Hermione ran into her boyfriend's arms, kissing him chastely before offering her father a hug. "Where have you boys been? Taking a tour of the upstairs?"

"Later, darling, though I'd love to see it…." The back of the Ron's neck flushed at David's comment; Harry had a feeling there was one part of the upstairs – namely, the master bedroom – that his best mates wouldn't want Hermione's father to see.

Mr. Granger now turned to his daughter's boyfriend. "Ron, it takes a real man to tell me what you did, especially seeing as you could have just gone along without saying anything. It takes an even bigger man to admit his faults. So I suppose I can think of no bloke finer for my little Hermione." Glancing between her father and lover, Hermione's eyes seemed to grow wide with understanding, before she beamed and hugged and kissed both men.

Ron shifted up to Harry, looking a little dazed and clearly relieved.

"Did…. you just get his permission to marry Hermione….?" Harry whispered Ginny's theory, the suspense killing him.

"What? No, not yet…! I…." Ron swallowed. "I told him about how I left you and Hermione on the Horcrux and why. Why I came back…." He shrugged. "I thought it would be best for the bloke to hear it directly from me now, rather than from someone and in some way else later."

Smiling, Harry nudged him. Ron really had grown up…. and following the man's gaze to where a radiant Hermione was laughing at something Teddy said to her, he could see why. "I'm proud of you, mate. Now….. where's my bloody present?"

"OI!" And Ron gave him an offended punch on the arm. "There's your damn present, ungrateful wanker!"

Harry threw back his head and hooted with laughter.