"Harry, " said Ginny seriously when she, Hermione, Sirius, and Harry himself had arrived in Godric's Hollow and were now in the living room, "Hermione and I actually have two gifts for you that we made together."
"We will present them both to you together, " explained Hermione.
Harry could already feel his eyes watering a bit. His two best friends had worked together on two birthday presents for him. Harry also took note of Ginny's use of the word "made" rather than "bought". This gave Harry a great gut feeling he was about to receive some very meaningful gifts.
"We need to go finish them, " chroused Hermione and Ginny, "Please wait here."
"Okay, " said Harry patiently as he watched Hermione and Ginny wander off.
Harry stood patiently still, not thinking about how much time was passing, but feeling his heart glow as he anticipated his BFFs presenting their gifts to him.
Sirius didn't say a word, he wanted Harry's full attention to be on Hermione and Ginny when they reentered the room.
It was about twenty minutes before Hermione and Ginny returned jointly carrying a large scarlet rectangular box.
"Well" said Hermione proudly, "Ginny and I have been making what's in the box for a birthday present to you. It is time to deliver the goods."
And Hermione and Ginny walked up to Harry and placed the large scarlet rectangular box in his hands, each of them removing their own hands from the box at the exact same nanosecond.
Harry lifted the lid off the box and saw what looked like framed drawings inside.
Lifting the framed drawings out of the box, Harry saw that these drawings were of events in his life since joining the magical world.
These framed drawings showed amongst other things: Harry under the Sorting Hat, Harry standing just outside the Hogwarts Express, Harry flying on a broom, Harry on a broom chasing a snitch, Harry riding Buckbeak, Harry holding his wand for the first time with the red and gold sparks coming out of it, Harry's first meeting with Sirius, and even a few that depicted the events of Harry's birthday bubble.
"We drew the pictures that depict the events of your birthday bubble in advance, since we knew what they were going to be. Everyone but you pretty much knew in advance what your birthday bubble was going to entail, so just included some of those events in the pictures we drew, " explained Hermione.
Harry looked through all the drawings his two BFFs had made, marveling at the quality of work, attention to detail, accuracy, and selection of events.
"These are splendid pictures, Hermione and Ginny, " said Harry emotionally, "The amount of effort, care, and detail you put into these pictures really shows."
"Since Luna was giving you paintings of the important people in your life, " explained Ginny, "We decided to compliment those paintings by making you drawings of big events in your life. "
"These drawings DO compliment Luna's paintings in terms of telling the story of my life in the Wizarding World, " said Harry sincerely, "Your work on these drawings will allow me to relive some of my favorite moments."
"So will our other gift, " said Hermione brightly. "But you'll have to follow us to your room to get it."
So, Harry and Sirius followed Hermione and Ginny up to Harry's room where in one corner stood a pensive.
"MY OWN PENSIVE!" said Harry excitedly, "Now I can relieve any moment of my life whenever I want knowing the depiction will be accurate. "
"That's right Harry, " said Ginny cheerfully, "Remember, pensives always show the actual truth and not incorrect memories. Bear that in mind if you want to be sure about certain things and events in your life. Pensives always tell the truth."
"Always, " added Hermione firmly.
"Thank you, Hermione and Ginny, for your wonderful gifts, " said Harry gratefully, "Since Lily isn't here, let me say this: you are sweet and kind, Hermione Granger and Ginny Weasley."
"Lily's rubbing off on you already, Harry, " smirked Ginny.
"If so, that's not a bad thing, " smiled Harry.
A bit later, Sirius said, "Harry, the next week or so, I'm going to be testing you in your magical skills. I will be testing and evaluating certain aspects of your magical skills and training you up to bring you up to snuff when necessary. Hermione and Ginny are going to help us out with that. Starting with tonight, Hermione and Ginny will be staying with us until you lot go off to the Creevey's on the 11th.
At this, Ginny felt an uncomfortable pang and an uncomfortable look briefly appeared on her face.
"Losing that birthday bet with Colin still stings, doesn't it, Ginny?" asked Harry cautiously.
"It does, " acknowledged Ginny, "I'm grateful for the late birthday party that will be held for me at my house when we all arrive there on the 17th. But, I had really hoped for my thirteenth birthday celebration on my actual birthday. Since my late birthday party hasn't actually been planned yet, I've considered writing to dad and seeing if I could borrow a time turner from the Ministry. A time turner would be the one way that Colin and I could both have birthday celebrations on our actual birthdays. On the surface, Colin and I having the same birthday means only one of us can have our birthday celebration on the actual day. Most years it wouldn't be a big deal for one of us to have an early or late birthday party. But both Colin and I find turning thirteen very significant so we were both really hoping to have the birthday celebration on our actual birthdays, but, because Colin and I have the same birthday, that could only happen for one of us. But, in the time turner scenario, Colin would have his thirteenth birthday party at his house as his winning the bet dictated. But in the time turner scenario, after Colin's birthday's party was over, I would use the time turner to do the day over again and have my thirteenth birthday party on the actual day. We'd stay at Colin's to do so, no big deal since I'm not bothered by where my party is held."
"So, " said Harry slowly, "All the guests would have to touch the time turner to go back in time?"
"Yes, " confirmed Ginny, "There are smaller and bigger time turners and I'd need a bigger one. I certainly wouldn't expect the Ministry of Magic to approve the use of a time turner for something so trivial. In all reality, I'll have to accept that late birthday party is the only option for me. But I might as well fire my last bullet even if the target feels continents away."
"I know Colin really did sympathize with you over losing that bet, " remembered Harry.
"He knows he'd have been in the same boat if he'd lost, " said Ginny matter of factly, "This was always a very uncomfortable issue between Colin and I, made that much more uncomfortable by how close Colin and I are. From my point of view, it hurts that I can't have my thirteenth birthday celebration on the actual day unless the time turner gets approved, which it almost certainly won't. Colin, while grateful he gets to have his thirteenth birthday celebration on the actual day, does feel for me that I have to miss out on that. He's even more pessimistic about the time turner being approved than I am. But it had to happen to one of us and Colin beat me fair and square. It's just really too bad Colin and I don't have different birthdays. But let's turn back to the topic at hand."
"Yes," said Sirius, "Harry starting tomorrow, I'm going to be testing you on your magical skills and abilities and training you up where necessary. Hermione and Ginny will be helping us out with some things."
"What do you plan to test me on?" Harry asked Sirius.
"Tomorrow I'm going to be testing and evaluating the strength of your Charms. Bear in mind, it's not just whether you can cast the charms in questions, but how strong they are when you do so. If they are too weak, I will work with you to bring your charms up to the needed strength, " said Sirius in a businesslike voice.
"A key point about magic, " explained Hermione, "Is that it's not just being able to perform magic that matters. How strong your magic actually is is a BIG deal."
"And you can work to make your magic stronger, " added Ginny.
""That's the whole point of what we're going to be doing the next week, Harry, " said Sirius in a businesslike voice, "We're going to see where you are, what your strengths and weakness are, and bring you up to snuff before next school semester begins."