Meanwhile, back at the Creevey's house, the clock had struck eight and it was time for Colin's birthday party to commence.
At the precise nanosecond the clock struck eight, Hugh, Dennis, Harry, Tina, Ginny, Hermione, Susan, Luna, and Lily all burst into song.
"Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Colin. Happy birthday to you."
'That was fantastic! " said Colin excitedly, "Hearing all your voices together like that was beautiful. I'm looking forward to Hogwarts choir this semester. "
"I know Ginny's going to try out for the choir, " said Lily brightly, "And so I am."
"That's wonderful, " Lily, " said Ginny happily, "I hope we both make it. Good luck, Lily!
"Good luck to you too, Ginny, " returned Lily.
Hugh, Colin, Dennis, Harry, Tina, Ginny, Hermione, Susan, Luna, and Lily each took a seat at the dining room table.
There were plain white plates and forks at each place setting along with a bottle of Jack Daniels at each place setting. A silver cake cutter sat in the exact middle of the table.
"I'm going to go fetch Colin's birthday cake, please wait here, " Tina instructed the others.
Tina went to the kitchen and picked Colin's birthday cake up off of the countertop she had set it down on and quickly returned to the dining room where she set Colin's birthday cake down smack dab in the middle of the table.
Colin's birthday cake was a light bright shade of yellow with white frosting on the top and the words Happy Thirteenth Birthday Colin made up on the top of the cake in redhotss.
There were also thirteen red candles with flickering yellow flames atop them spaced throughout the top of the cake.
Colin quickly picked up his camera, which he had left on the dining room table the night before and took a few pictures of his birthday cake.
"Colin, I made your favorite lemon cake with your favorite vanilla frosting, " said Tina in a proud and happy voice, "I added the words in redhots as a unique touch."
"WOW!" beamed Colin, "It looks awesome! Thanks mom!"
"You are sweet and kind, Tina Creevey, " piped up Lily.
"This cake was really fun to make, " said Tina glowingly. "And note the candles. I am going to give you the opportunity to blow out the candles."
Colin opened his mouth and aimed a good blow at the cake.
To his delight, Colin succeeded in blowing out all thirteen candles.
"I DID IT!" yelled Colin ecstatically as everyone else applauded.
"That was a nice moment, " smiled Tina, "Hugh, could you cut and serve the cake?"
"Yes, " answered Hugh, who quickly grabbed the cake cutter from the middle of the table and cut the cake into ten exact pieces. He then placed one piece of the cake on everybody's plates.
"As this is Colin's birthday party, I think he should take the first bite of cake, " said Hugh clearly.
Colin pulled off a small piece of his cake with his fork and lifted it to his mouth where he chewed it slowly, savoring the lemon, vanilla, and redhot flavors.
"Delicious!" declared Colin glowingly, "My favorite flavors mixed together! Mom, you truly are the GOAT of cake baking!"
Tina burst into the widest smile she had ever had come across her face. She had never met anyone who didn't like her cooking, but to hear her own son call her the GOAT of cake baking in response to his thirteenth birthday cake gave Tina an inner satisfaction that nothing else could have. Tina wasn't a woman who got too excited but contentness washed over her as she took in what Colin had said.
"That means everything to me, Colin, " said Tina in a low but sincere voice, "There's nothing that could bring me more internal happiness than to hear you compliment me on my cake baking in response to your thirteenth birthday cake."
"Everyone dig in now, " called Colin.
For the next few minutes and the next few nanoseconds, Hugh, Colin, Dennis, Harry, Tina, Ginny, Hermione, Susan, Luna, and Lily calmly and leisurely savored the yumminess and both Colin's thirteenth cake and the Jack Daniels to wash it down with.
When the cake and Jack Daniels were gone, Tina said clearly, "Let's all go out back."
Hugh, Colin, Dennis, Harry, Tina, Ginny, Hermione, Susan, Luna, and Lily all got up from the dining room table and they all eagerly rushed out into the backyard.
Seven presents for Colin sat in a row on the lush green lawn. All of Colin's presents had simple white to-from tags with names written in simple black ink.
"Colin, go for it, " chroused Hugh and Tina.
"Please take pictures as we go along, " Colin asked Hugh, handing his father his camera.
"I will, " promised Hugh.
Colin rushed over to his presents and picked up the present at the left of the row. It was wrapped in white wrapping paper with images of balloons in every color you could think of. This gift was marked from Lily Moon to Colin Creevey.
Colin eagerly ripped the wrapping paper off of Lily's gift and to his delight found a home sewn yellow blanket. This blanket was comprised of horizontal lines of yellow of different shades. It featured four different shades of yellow that went from lightest to darkest. This pattern repeated from the top of the blanket to the bottom of it.
"Wow, Lily!" said Colin in an awestruck voice, "Did you sew this yourself?"
"Yes, " said Lily proudly, puffing out her chest, "I wanted to make you a gift that I thought fit your personality."
"This blanket will go so well with my normal bedsheets and pillowcase and with the walls of my room as well, " said Colin gleefully.
"I thought it would too, " smiled Lily, "It felt like the perfect gift for you."
"You succeeded, Lily, " beamed Colin as he sat the blanket down.
Colin returned to his row of presents and retrieved Luna's gift. Luna had wrapped her gift in pale purple wrapping purple with images of all sorts of strange creatures on it.
Colin removed this wrapping paper to discover a jukebox that was Ravenclaw blue in color. There were bronze buttons that noted play, first, last, previous, next, and record.
"interesting, " said Colin uncertainly, "Luna, what songs are on it?"
"None yet, that'll be up to you, " smiled Luna. "The record feature allows you to sing songs yourself for inclusion, record other people singing, or copy songs from records, cassette tapes, and CDs. The jukebox is currently blank. You choose what to put on it."
"That was a really nice gift, Luna, " said Colin happily, "I love the freedom I have to program it myself."
"That's the idea, " beamed Luna.
"You are sweet and kind, Luna Lovegood, " said Lily cheerfully.
Colin set the jukebox down next to the blanket and grabbed Susan's gift from the row of presents.
Susan had wrapped her gift in plain hot pink wrapping paper. When Colin tore this paper off, a set of hot pink balloons inflated themselves automatically and automatically filled with water. As intended by the way Susan had charmed the balloons, they all popped in Colin's face, showering his face with water.
Hugh, Colin, Dennis, Harry, Tina, Ginny, Hermione, Susan, Luna, and Lily all grinned and giggled.
"PRANKED!" grinned Susan triumphantly.
"You get me good, " conceded Colin, "So, Susan decided to prank me for my birthday! There's one to remember! "
"Colin, " said Susan more seriously, "I actually did get you a real present. I get a kick out of messing with you, but I do have a real gift for you."
Susan dug into her left hand pocket with her left hand and pulled out a watch. It was a scarlet colored watch with an image of Aslan on it and black digital numbers. Susan handed the watch the Colin, whose face lit up like a firework in the sky.
"I love Narnia!" said Colin excitedly, "An Aslan watch? Splendid! Way better than my normal plain watch."
"I was on vacation in New Zealand with Aunt Amelia last week, " explained Susan, "I saw this watch in s souvenir shop in New Zealand and I remembered that you're a big Narnia fan, so I picked it up for you."
"Thanks a lot, Susan," said Colin brightly, "Three for three so far."
"You are sweet and kind, Susan Bones, " said Lily radiantly.
Colin placed the watch down by the jukebox and saw that the next gift in the row, which was from Hermione, was large and he could sense it would be heavy. It was wrapped in silver wrapping paper bearing lots of Hogwarts crest logos. Peeling back the wrapping paper from where Hermione's gift sat, Colin found a brand new Hogwarts trunk.
"Good timing, " smiled Colin, "My old trunk-"
"Has seen better days and needs to be thrown out, " said Hermione firmly, "I've noticed the scratches, faded paint, peeled paint, beverage stains, etc. on your old trunk. "
"It had gotten to a point where it didn't look very nice, " admitted Colin, "But as the function of a Hogwarts trunk is storage and not decoration, neither I nor my parents worried about it too much."
"That's why I took it upon myself to replace it for you, " said Hermione clearly, "I knew you weren't too worried about it, but I thought it would be nice if you went back to Hogwarts with a nicer and newer trunk."
"I appreciate the thought, Hermione, " said Colin warmly as he put the trunk by the watch.
"You are sweet and kind, Hermione Granger, " said Lily glowingly.
Colin went to grab Ginny's gift next.
Ginny's gift was wrapped in Gryffindor wrapping paper. Colin took this off to find a jar full of brightly colored gumballs with yellow, orange, lime green, white, and hot pink being the colors most predominantly featured in the jar.
"Colin, " said Ginny apologetically, "I'm really sorry that I couldn't buy you a better birthday present. But, well, my money is limited so I- "
"It's all good, Ginny, " said Colin warmly, "You know I love bright and vivid colors. Besides, you don't ever have to apologize for any gift. And I'm fully aware of the Weasleys' financial situation. It's a quite decent gift from someone who I know is on a small budget."
Ginny breathed a huge sigh of relief and muttered, "Thanks, Colin, " quietly.
"You are sweet and kind, Ginny Weasley, " piped up Lily, "You are humble and understanding, Colin Creevey."
Colin put the jar of gumballs besides the watch (He hadn't moved the trunk.) and eagerly went to find Harry's gift.
Harry had wrapped his gift in wrapping paper on a teal background that had streamers and confetti like images of all colors all over it.
'THE BEST YET BY FAR!" screamed Colin as it was revealed that Harry had bought him a brand new large black camera along with multiple rolls of film. This camera was clearly of higher quality than the camera Colin currently owned, or any he'd owned before it.
"Colin's ideal birthday gift would be a new camera, " grinned Harry,
"You've won the competition for best birthday present to me, Harry, " said Colin glowingly.
"Not necessarily, " said Harry reasonably, "The last gift is from your family."
"You are sweet and kind, Harry Potter, " said Lily cheerfully.
Colin set the camera alongside the jar of gumballs and glanced over at the last remaining gift. It was marked as being from mom, dad, and Dennis and was wrapped in sun yellow wrapping paper with images of cameras on it.
Colin tore into this gift to discover a white box. Opening this box, Colin saw four sets of round trip airplane tickets and a note.
The note read: Colin, we're going where you've always wanted for Christmas! Over the Christmas holidays we will be taking a family vacation to Maui.
"Seriously?"! said Colin breathlessly, hardly daring to believe it.
"Seriously, " confirmed Hugh, Tina, and Dennis.
"Mom and dad already told me about this, " piped up Dennis, "But, since it's been your lifelong dream to take a family vacation to Maui for Christmas, we thought we'd share this news with you on your thirteenth birthday."
Colin just had happy tears streaming down his cheeks as the others looked on.