Chapter 8 A Magical Birthday

On some level Harry knew he was a year older today. He just felt it in his bones, but he chalked it up to just being stronger and faster. He proved this by running into the living room with his shirt on backwards, a frazzled Miralene chasing him the whole way. Harry ducked under Moony's arm before he could be caught and skidded to a stop in front of the fireplace. The glowing egg stared back at Harry and seemed to sing to him. He beamed at it, entranced.

From far away he felt his body being jostled as his shirt was turned around and his hair was combed. He didn't care though, because he was too busy peering at the minute scratch on the top of the egg. The egg was wobbling gently on its bed of coals, but the scratch got no bigger. Finally, Harry was jolted out of his thoughts by little Jenny kitty plopping herself onto his feet and curling up.

The kitten had grown bigger in the few months that Harry had her, and with a little help, he was very good at taking care of her. He seemed to take better care of her than his toys, because as the Hogwarts Express chugged along the room one too many times, Harry got frustrated and tried to get onto one of the little seats. The train juddered to a halt as the seat broke beneath Harry's weight. It was fixed, but Harry received a stern talking to about his temper.

Picking up Jenny kitty, Harry ran into the kitchen and put her down again so he could use the little scoop to put food in her bowl. He then clambered into his highchair for his own breakfast. His Auntie Liss smiled at him as she forked eggs and fruit onto his little plate and poured out a small cup of apple juice.

"Happy birthday Harry," she said," beaming a huge smile at him.

Harry never saw such a smile before on his Auntie Liss as he ate his breakfast. His Uncle Moony and Auntie Han also said happy birthday, and of course his mummy, who kissed him on his head and called him her "Little sparrow." Harry was loving this day.

Harry finished his breakfast and decided to go check on the egg again. He noticed that the little lights, which were real faeries, were fluttering all around the fire.

The animated toys, unbeknownst to Harry, had to be re-animated, and followed him over to the fire, the werewolf lagging behind. Harry urged it onward so it was in line with the others, and they trooped to the fireplace. Harry wondered if toy Moony was tired. It was almost the full moon. He peered up at the egg again, noticing that the scratch had grown bigger. That's where Mummy found him a little bit later, wondering what he was doing.

"It's almost time for you to open your presents, my little sparrow," said Miralene, walking up to Harry and the faeries clustered near the fire. "Blaise is here to see you too."

Iliana had finally consented to short visits, and so it was that Harry and Blaise had met on a handful of occasions under strict supervision. Miralene found that she didn't mind the woman when she was relaxed. She called Harry's name again, but her little darling didn't answer her. He was too busy staring at the egg in the fire… The wobbling egg with a large crack down the top and center. Miralene gasped and sat down in the nearest available chair.

Raising her wand, she sent a paper airplane to Hannette, unable to cast the patronus charm. It was no matter. Everyone was inside the house and Hannette would receive the message as swiftly as the airplane could fly. She took a few steadying breaths and looked back at Harry. There was no way of moving him, especially now that Jenny kitty had curled up on his feet and he was covered in faeries.

A spider patronus arrived, letting her know that Iliana Zabini was not pleased but would wait with her son Blaise. If Harry didn't come out of this trance in half an hour she was leaving. Miralene sighed. She cast a timer spell with her wand and turned back to Harry. With a large cracking sound like a glass shattering, a small bit of shell broke away from the top of the egg. Harry stirred and then went still again. This was going to be an interesting half an hour.

Harry stood watching as the first bit of egg shell fell into the fire. It lay there like a pretty trinket. One of the faeries jumped off his shoulder and dived into the fire to pick it up. Where the faerie went, Harry had no idea. He could only stare in awe at the tiny glimmer of white hot fuzz that was revealed.

He had no idea how long it took for eggs like this to hatch. He didn't even know that Jenny kitty was now on his feet. Soon, or maybe a long time from now, another sound like breaking glass was heard and Harry startled slightly. It was only the egg, though. Another faerie dived into the flames to get the tiny piece of shell and where it took it, Harry didn't know. White hot fuzz was again all Harry could see.

Ten minutes had passed, and Alice discretely passed threw from the patio to the toy box and out again. She made little noise and only nodded in Miralene's direction. Miralene was in awe at the 2 pieces of egg shell floating in a faerie constructed box in the middle of the room. It seemed the little fire bird wanted to hatch as soon as humanly possible.

She couldn't believe Harry had already named the little baby, let alone known it was a phoenix, and a female at that. Those damn meddlesome faeries would cause her a nervous breakdown if she wasn't careful. Speaking of faeries, another five minutes had passed and the glass shattering sound of breaking shell filled the room. Three pieces of smoking hot shell in rose tones rested in the box like construct now.

With a powerful kick, the phoenix Hedwig, kicked the remaining bits of shell from her legs. The faeries pulled them from the fire, putting them in the box, then four of the creatures removed her, gently pulling away a thin membrane from her wings. This membrane burned away into ashes. Hedwig was beautiful, with a downy white fuzz all over her body. Her tail and wings were golden as well as her eyes and claws.

Miralene stopped her timer as Hedwig the phoenix cooed. Miralene noticed her beak was also golden. The 4 faeries tucked Hedwig under the shoulder of Harry's shirt so she could keep warm. Not even her beak showed, though Miralene knew she could breathe under there. She did try to stop the faeries, but they swarmed her, telling her Hedwig was quite cool now and needed body heat to stay warm.

"Come on little sparrow," Miralene said. "Don't show Hedwig to anyone at the party okay? We'll all have a better look at her later when Blaise and his mom have gone home. Now let's go before Blaise has to go home."

"Yes mummy," said Harry, quite back to normal. "Come on Jenny kitty. "We go open pwesents now."

Jenny kitty followed them out to the patio and Miralene was glad to see Harry kept his white and gold phoenix safe under his shirt. He was good with his budding friendship with Blaise, and even said sorry to Iliana for taking so long. All in all, it was a pretty good party, she thought.

A/N Hello beautiful souls. I will admit that was a sucky party scene but I ran out of creative juices and thought nah they don't want to see a party all on the next chapter. Yes it's been a long time and for that I'm sorry. Major writers block and health issues struck again. I am still open to co-writing if you want to help out with the story. If not, what scenes would you like to see? Who or what should appear? I know Harry is still uber young but I feel there aren't enough stories where he really grows up you know, and if there are, they're drabbles. Don't worry I do want to tackle school… But school will be hard for me so suggestions would be great. One more thing, I am kind of not digging the Remus/Tonks thing. It was really rushed. Any ideas? Same goes for the motherly banshee. Rosebloom