CHAPTER THREE
Birthday Wishes
Harry woke up to the rustle of paper and the creak and thunk of his bedroom door. He reached for his glasses on the bedside table and set them gingerly on the crown of his nose. With heavy eyes, he scanned the room.
"Oh, that's right." He slurred. "I'm at Siri … er ... Grimmauld Place." He had become so accustomed to slipping into his occlumency trances recently he did so out of habit. "Ron? You up?" There was no reply.
Harry got out of bed and threw on a pair of trousers and a shirt and padded over to his best friend's bed. Drawing back the curtain, he found it empty. You'd think he'd wake me up for breakfast or something. Harry thought to himself. Yawning and wiping the sleep from his eyes. He turned to the door and stepped into the hall. A shadow shrank into the study and the door closed quietly.
"Hello? Is that you, Ron?" Harry asked in the direction of the study. The hair on the back of his neck began to bristle and he stepped back into his room and grabbed his wand in case he would need it. Looking down the hall and finding nobody there, he slowly crept towards the door.
Pressing his ear to the oak barrier, he heard some quiet shuffling in the room on the other side. Slowly lifting his wand, he opened the door a crack and peeked through the gap. He could only see that the room was brightly lit and from the angle he was afforded, he couldn't see too far to either side of the room.
He opened the door a bit more and stuck his head and wand in. Nothing but furniture could be seen. He chanced opening the door fully and stepped cautiously into the room. "H-hello?" He asked tentatively. "Anyone about?"
No answers.
A hand landed on his shoulder causing him to startle and turn about instantly.
"WHOA!" Ron shouted in surprise. "Watch where you point that thing, mate!"
"Ron, don't sneak up on people like that! It could have been the death of me!"
"From my angle, it would have been the death of me!" Ron tried to hold back his snicker but failed miserably. "Wh-what were you doing? It looked like you thought you-know-who was going to jump out at you just now."
Harry took a quick look around the room again, confirming that he had indeed seen nothing out of the ordinary, at least something other than the clean and bright room that the study had become. "It's nothing. I just thought I heard someone in here and thought it was you."
Crookshanks bumped his head into Harry's calf and began to purr methodically as he rubbed up against his leg.
"It must have been Crookshanks." Harry sighed in relief. He picked up the orange cat and scratched behind its ears, eliciting an even stronger purr from the animal.
"Come on, Harry. Let's get downstairs and grab something to eat before we start packing. We leave for Hogwarts tomorrow.'
"Sounds like a plan." Harry replied as he set Crookshanks on the floor and closed the door to the study. "Come to think of it, why didn't you wake me when you went down the first time?"
"You seemed to be sleeping fine for once. I figured you needed some rest is all."
Harry shrugged. Since learning occlumency, he'd been getting plenty of rest. "Fair enough." He replied.
The two friends started down the hall and passed the girls' room.
"Are Hermione and Ginny already down there?" Harry asked.
"Yeah. They were up before I was. I don't understand how anyone can be up before ten during holiday." Ron answered.
It had been two weeks since the flight to the Order's headquarters and every day since their arrival, the girls had both been up at the crack of dawn. Like Ron, Harry could barely believe where they got all their energy. He snapped back to the present when he realized that Ron was talking to him about a Chudley Cannons match he and his brothers had gone to last July.
"Cor, you should have seen their seeker, Harry! Ten seconds, TEN, and he had the snitch! I couldn't believe it!" Ron crowed about his favorite team all the way to the kitchen. "Go on, Harry, after you." He said nonchalantly.
Harry opened the door and stepped over the threshold.
"SURPRISE!" Harry fell on his backside from the shock!
"Wha?" Was all he could come up with as everyone rushed over and tried to help him up at once. It was Ginny who had won the race.
"Happy birthday, Harry." She said with a beaming smile.
"But my birthday was last month." He protested.
"Well, ok, happy belated birthday then." She laughed.
Taking her hand, Harry got to his feet and she guided him to the chair at the head of the table where he was directed to sit.
"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Harry, happy birthday to you!" They all sang as Mrs. Weasley and Tonks set a large chocolate cake in front of him. There were sixteen candles arranged around the phrase "Happy sixteenth, Harry!" which was spelled out in mint frosting. All sixteen candles were lit, the flames each a different color of the rainbow.
"Go on, Harry, make a wish." Hermione said happily from his right.
Taking a deep breath, Harry blew out the candles in one shot. The smoke coiled up into the air and formed a picture of a Quidditch pitch with small ghostlike players flying around in circles around the goals and its perimeter.
Harry was stunned. A … A surprise birthday party? For me? He could hardly grasp the situation as Mrs. Weasley gave him a quick hug and began divvying up the cake and laying the pieces on saucers. He looked around at his friends, no, his family and felt tears begin to well in his eyes.
"Are you alright, Harry?" Tonks asked a look of concern on her face.
Harry wiped his eyes quickly. "Huh? Oh, yeah, the smoke just stung my eyes for a second there." He grinned back at her then chuckled. Tonks had morphed her nose into a pig snout and changed her hair to a very curly pink.
"Ah," she smiled, "good to hear that then!"
Harry looked around again this time his gaze settled on Ginny. "Yeah, I'm fine, really." He smiled and noticed her cheeks turn pink as she turned her attention to the cake that had been set down in front of her.
He had already received his birthday gifts on July thirty-first and was fully enjoying the company of everyone when he suddenly realized. "Where's Kreacher?"
Molly looked up from doing the dishes. "He died shortly after the events at the Ministry. He was the one that had taken that old bat's picture from its frame. Without a word he jumped into the heating stove with it."
"What? That's horrible!" Hermione exclaimed.
Harry shuddered. "Well, I guess he was always strangely devoted to his mistress. I hope not all house elves are that devoted."
"Well, unfortunately there are many like that." Remus put in. "They gain their pleasure from the attention that their families show them, whether it's good or bad. It's quite sad, really, but they equate that attention with love."
"After what I've seen Dobby go through, I find it hard to believe that they think like that." Harry said. "Dobby even defied the Malfoys and warned me of the trouble that was going to plague Hogwarts that year. Of course, every time he said anything that insulted his 'masters' he would punish himself."
"Well, you helped him avoid that, didn't you?" Hermione added with a smile. "I wish I could have seen the look on that git's face when Dobby opened the book and found the sock he had been given!"
Harry chuckled for a moment. "Yes, he was pretty mad. I think he even started to send the killing curse my way but Dobby knocked him down with a bit of elf magic."
"That was a close call then!" Ron exclaimed dramatically.
"Yeah, it was at that. That was quite a year as well." Harry glanced at Ginny who was nodding her agreement.
"I've learned my lesson about things that tend to think on their own!" She said emphatically and everyone laughed.
"Ok, shoo, everyone!" Mrs. Weasley began. "Go and get your things packed, I don't want to push my luck again this year. We've almost been late for the Express every year since Harry's joined us."
"Thanks for the party, everyone. It was a first for me!" Harry smiled happily.
"No birthday parties, ever?" Tonks exclaimed. "I guess those muggles really are wicked people, aren't they?"
Harry could only nod his agreement. I don't have to like them, but I do hope they're ok.
After a few moments of helping to clear the table, the four friends filed out of the kitchen and up to their rooms to pack their trunks. Maybe they wouldn't have to rush around in the morning like they had for the past few years.
"Hey, Ron, have you seen my dress robes? I could have sworn that I had set them in my trunk just last night." Harry asked.
"No, Harry. Sorry, but aside from the mess I've made from unpacking, I've only been able to find your normal robes that mum brought up last night." Ron handed him the black garments with a shrug. "Don't worry, they'll turn up. Did you check the cloak? Maybe they got wrapped up in it and they're just invisible."
Harry checked through his things and sure enough, his dress robes had been folded inside his cloak. "Good call, Ron. Now all I have to do is get my new books …"
BADUMP!
Harry clutched his chest and fell to his knees.
"What was that Harry?" Ron asked idly as he turned around and saw his friend crumpled in a heap on the floor. "HARRY! WHAT'S WRONG?"
Harry looked up at his friend, his face white as snow and there was fear in his eyes. "I-I don't know …" He said weakly. "I was standing there when …"
BADUMP!
Harry doubled over and gritted his teeth. The door flew open with Ginny and Hermione rushing in with Mrs. Weasley and Remus.
"HARRY! Oh, my goodness, what's happening?" Ginny shot to his side and helped him up into his bed where he curled into a fetal position.
Ron started to panic. "Mum, I don't know what happened! One minute he was fine, then the second he was on the floor grabbing his chest!"
Lupin and Molly exchanged worried looks. "I'll notify Albus immediately!" And Remus shot out of the room like a bullet.
BADUMP! BADUMP!
Harry growled in pain and looked up. All he could see were the honey brown eyes of Ginny and her concerned look. "I'm sorry," he mouthed and saw the tears start to flow from her eyes.
That was the last thing he saw as he slowly slipped into unconsciousness.